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Google Slashes Prices of Its USB-C Headphone Dongle Following Minor Outrage (mashable.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the change-of-heart dept.

At its hardware event last week, Google unveiled its two new flagship smartphones: the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. While these devices feature high-end specifications and the latest version of Android, they both lack headphone jacks, upsetting many consumers who still rely heavily on wired headphones. To add insult to injury, Google announced a USB-C adapter for a whopping price of $20 -- that's $11 more than Apple's Lightning to 3.5mm adapter. This resulted in some minor outrage and caused Google to rethink its decision(s). As reported by 9to5Google, Google decided to slash the price of the dongle by over 50%. It is now priced at a more reasonable $9.

22 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I am not a audiophile per say, but I have yet to find a decent pair of bluetooth headphones that don't have connection issues, or quality problems with audio. In fact I can easily spend half the amount on a pair of wired headphones and get far better quality audio then bluetooth. I would also point out that since a smartphone has built in speakers, all the hardware is there for a headphone jack. In reality this is not about saving parts costs, making phones thinner.
    The dongle is admitting that people still use wired headphones, but that the obsessive competitive design of winning the thinnest smartphone is winning over practical use. I would not be surprised to see a phone maker take advantage and make a phone with a 1/8th jack and market as such.

    1. Re: Dumb by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

      You don't se :^)

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    2. Re: Dumb by mr100percent · · Score: 2

      Appleâ(TM)s Airpods are pretty good and donâ(TM)t seem to have issues. Theyâ(TM)re well reviewed.

    3. Re:Dumb by sheramil · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's been my limited experience with headphone purchasing that there are only two kinds: the cheap-ass ones (up to $50), then there's a huge gap and you have the high-end artisanal $3000 ones designed by Taoist monks on rice paper with endangered squid ink, made with alluvial gold connectors and endorsed by the latest rapper who hasn't yet been shot by any of the other rappers.

      Anyway, with all their data mining, Google couldn't tell that people would be outraged at the original set price? Did they even think to ask anyone, or did they run around the boardroom table and get the opinions of a bunch of people who earn more money in a week than most of us see in a year?

    4. Re:Dumb by fluffernutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why would anyone buy a bluetooth headset if they're fine using a cable?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    5. Re:Dumb by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 2

      Both google and apple having to back peddle on price, at launch, for the dongles, shows that they dont know what the market wants and are having to react rather than lead.

      I bought the iPhone 7 after my 6S+ was stolen. My next phone will have a headphone jack after the pain I continually go through.

      --
      The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
    6. Re: Dumb by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Some of us are happy paying $300.

      Mind you if I paid for $300 I would expect something that sounds a shitload better than the Airpods or the nausea inducing Beats Pro

    7. Re:Dumb by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      It's probably something as simple as exaggerated ego: "We think we are twice as good as Apple so our adapter should cost twice as much".

      Apple's adapters come with the iPhone.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    8. Re: Dumb by supernova87a · · Score: 3, Informative

      No they're not, they're $159. What are you talking about?

    9. Re:Dumb by Khyber · · Score: 2

      Audio engineers HATE unnecessary noise-generating connections.

      Also I guess you never listened to Kendrick Lamar's 'Damn' album which was done almost entirely on an iPhone. It sounds 1,000x better than any Metallica original or remaster.

      But idiots like you don't know what phones are capable of. We used to mix music on hardware 1,000x less powerful back in the beginning 90s.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  2. Has anyone figured why they dropped support by Kartu · · Score: 2

    Has anyone figured why they dropped support for good old audio out port?
    Apple did it to sell overpriced accessories, but what are google's motives?

    PS
    If other manufacturers follow this idiotic move, "having analog audio out socket" will become top point in my "phone must have it" list, above OLED screen and SD card.

    1. Re:Has anyone figured why they dropped support by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To sell overpriced accessories, or just because they're lemmings. Seriously, $20 or $9, both are more expensive than the $1 it would have cost to leave the always-available jack on the phone.

      Both Google and Apple are pushing $1000 phones which are huge. Tiny $100 basic phones have headphone jacks. Any excuse that it's size or cost is bullshit rationalization.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re: Has anyone figured why they dropped support by mr100percent · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The existence of the dongle disproves that, because the analog hole is unchanged.

    3. Re: Has anyone figured why they dropped support by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      You would be surprised how many iPhone users do use ordinary headphones and a headphone jack.
      Bluetooth: just another device that can go out of power on a trip.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    4. Re: Has anyone figured why they dropped support by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 5, Informative

      Big Media wants to close the analog hole. If there's a purely analog channel, such as a 3.5 mm audio jack or a RCA video output on a PC, it's trivial to make recordings of copyrighted content.

      This story is about Google lowering the price on something that provides that analog hole, so I'm not quite 100% certain that your logic holds up.

    5. Re:Has anyone figured why they dropped support by JohnFen · · Score: 2

      The only sensible reason I can see is for waterproofing.

      Except that other phones have higher water resistance ratings than the Pixel 2 while keeping the headphone jack.

    6. Re:Has anyone figured why they dropped support by msauve · · Score: 2

      "Apple is OCD about thinness"

      iPhone 8 is 7.3-7.7 mm thick. One can easily find over-the-counter 3.5 mm jacks which are ~5 mm in total height. If they can't fit a jack in one of their phones, they're either not trying or incompetent.

      And personally, I find the that the current move toward thin phones (including my 9mm thick one) with to-the-edge screens uncomfortable and inconvenient. You have to hold them by the edge, and half the time you'll still end up with the screen sensing a finger overlapping the edge of the screen causing unwanted inputs. And, trying to handle them so that's not an issue just makes them more likely to be dropped, but maybe that's the intent. If it weren't so sadly hostile to human factors engineering, watching a person try to hand a phone to someone else so they could see a picture, etc. without disturbing what's on the screen would be comical.

      Apple isn't about design, let alone good design. They're about form over function. Good design doesn't make that compromise.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  3. It's the principle that counts by thisisauniqueid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Newsflash: Google drops price of headphone adapter from 2% to 1% of the price of the phone. I agree that $20 is way too steep for the adapter, and $9 seems more reasonable (though it should probably be more like $5). However, Google's original attitude towards pricing of the dongle really just underscores how overpriced the phone is in the first place.

    1. Re:It's the principle that counts by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Informative

      It should probably be under a dollar, those adapters cost nearly nothing to make.

      Also does the dongle have a pass-through? Because if you can't charge and listen to music at the same time then the dongle is only dealing with part of the problem.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  4. Bluetooth headphones is not there yet by fateblossom · · Score: 2

    Bluetooth headphones is not there yet.
    It is a nightmare to figure out what sound quality you get in bluetooth headphones/speakers today.
    To send/resive audio via bluetooth you only need to support SBS audio. That is has bad quality compared to bitrate..
    Some support MP3/AAC/LDAC/Apt-X/Apt-X HD/What ever.
    The problem is that both sender and reciver have to support the same format for it to work. You can't just get some headphones that support Apt-X if your phone do not support it.
    And most of the time it is almost imposibel to see what the phone/headphones/speaker is supporting. So it's but and hope for the best. Or spent a lot of time seatching the web to see if anyone have an anwser.

    And after all that. Then there is also how good is the DAC in the speaker/headphones.
    Most phones today have a good DAC. But headphones can support all the best audio codecs. And have a crap DAC. So it sounds bad anyway.
    And putting a good DAC in the speaker/headphones also bumps the price. And then you have an extra thing to recharge.

    Sure in the future when they have better standards for sounds. And you are sure you get something good. No matter what you buy.
    But we are not there yet.
    So why remove the 3.5 Jack stik. It works. And it has yet get a usefull replacement.

    Dropping the floppy for CD-Drive and laver for USB stik.
    Sure. The CD was an improvment over the floppy. And the USB stik had been improved a lot when it replaced optick drives in computers.
    It would have faild if they did it when we only had the USB 1 standard. But it got better and storgage bigger and chaper. So you could do the switch.

  5. Still overpriced by HalAtWork · · Score: 2

    Hard to figure why it should even cost that much. Classic example of asking too much in order to make the second offer seem reasonable.

    --
    Twinstiq, game news
  6. Re:No physical ports is a good thing by ShnowDoggie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I do not know anyone who wants a thinner phone. I know several people who love iPhones, kept them without cases, who now use a case. They now use a case solely because the phone is easier to hold with a little more thickness and heft. Apple wants them thinner. Goggle want them thinner. Advertisers seem to want them thinner. But do we really want them thinner? Or, are we taking the bad with the good?