Rumors are circulating that Apple’s next-generation iPhone will drop the 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, with new iPhone headsets relying on the lightning port or Bluetooth instead.
Whether or not this is true, there is another report of a Chinese accessory maker advertising a series of Lightning-to-headphone adapters with separate volume controls.
This all makes sense to me, feels believable. Used to be, high end studio equipment came with a 1/4″ jack and studio headphones shipped with a 1/4″ plug (the same size jack as you find on an electric guitar). As the 3.5mm jack became the standard, headphone manufacturers started shipping headphones with a high quality (usually) screw on adapter. With the adapter in place, you had a 1/4″ plug, without the adapter, 3.5mm. Easy-peasy.
The original iPhone shipped with a wide, 30-pin jack. When Apple shifted to the lightning jack, there was much gnashing of teeth as well as a short-lived market for 30-pin to lightning adapters. Instantly, your 30-pin iPhone/iPad felt old, outdated. But over time, as you replaced your 30-pin devices, the older standard fell into the dustbin.
Will Apple drop the 3.5mm headphone jack? Perhaps. But if they do, I suspect we’ll have no problem finding the right adapter for our existing headphones. You’ll no doubt find them in the Apple Store, right next to the USB-C adapters.
The only “will it make it better” thing I have ever read is that it would allow for active noise cancelation without the bulk of batteries. I don’t know if that is enough of a benefit for wired headphones, but it is a real benefit. On the flip side, it eliminates a substantial amount of dead space within the phone and removes one of the largest holes in the phone.
I think if they ditch the 3.5mm port in favor of the Lightning port, they can kill off a lot of the grumbling if they pair the transition with a “now there’s room for more battery” comment and increase the battery life semi-significantly.
Which I can’t see. I mean, how much more battery can they add because the jack and associated electronics are gone? 15 minutes?
Agreed. If they can show a real, substantial benefit such as longer battery life than I think they’ll persuade the masses.
The 30 pin to Lightning transition was from one proprietary connect to another, though. This is different. People have bought 3rd party headphones, use their headphones with other things, etc. The 3.5 mm jack is a standard in ways the 30 pin connector never was.
But that could be done today. Are there any lightning headphones with that feature out today? If there aren’t doesn’t that seem to indicate there isn’t much of a demand for that?
The usefulness all depends on what headphones Apple decides to offer.
You’re missing how large the internals of a headphone jack are. Using this space for battery might increase it by ~10%.
Actually if you look at the internals, it’s not nearly 1/10th the size of the battery in the iphone 6. See that little grey nub smaller than a thumbnail in the lower left corner? That’s the headphone assembly. You’ll get 5% tops. You can fit about three of them across and over six going up. https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/NDuE6dAWvWl2YYoU
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I just use bluetooth, no more debate.