
Apple To Abandon Headphone Jack? Beats Deal Suddenly Makes Sense - cocoflunchy
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/06/05/apple-to-abandon-headphone-jack-suddenly-beats-deal-makes-sense/
======
ISL
Dropping the analog-output port of the headphone jack would allow all digital
DRM straight to the speaker. The analog hole still exists, but it's smaller.

Interesting impact on developers that use the ADC/DAC for other things, like
Square and sensing apps.

It'd be a surprise to see the jack go away at first, but retain it for a while
before a phase-out.

~~~
chillingeffect
^^^ This is a post that didn't deserve to be downvoted.^^^

It's insightful and polite. Please control your down-voting, people!

------
LeoPanthera
I find it (extremely) difficult to believe that Apple would remove the
headphone jack from iPhones. Lightning headphones? Sure. Premium DACs driven
from Lightning? Why not.

Remove the headphone jack? Suicide.

~~~
melling
You should blog about it. That way your arrogance can be documented. Apple is
the one company that would do it. You can join this guy:

[http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2001-05-20/commentary-
so...](http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2001-05-20/commentary-sorry-steve-
heres-why-apple-stores-wont-work)

Personally, I think HN readers should be a little more open minded. At some
point, headphones will need to evolve.

~~~
DontBeADick
Funny how you assume headphones are the only thing anyone ever plugs into a
headphone jack.

~~~
mantrax5
Funny how you assume he assumes that?

The lightning port can do everything you can do with the headphone port, _and
more_.

There are three problems with the headphone jack that Apple can see:

1\. It's limited: it can stream analog stereo sound, and get back analog mono
microphone. There's a nasty hack some headphones do so you can have a 2-3
buttons on a headphone (say, prev/next track, pause/play), but that's it.
Analog sound over a long cable means you add noise. You get no noise
cancelation, no surround sound, no other data streams etc. Maybe they have
headphones with extra sensors in mind.

2\. It's redundant: it takes space while doing a subset of what Lightning can
do: that DAC circuitry takes space and wastes power, and the port itself is an
ugly hole for no interesting reason than headphones don't currently support
Lightning. If Apple removes the headphone port, it can use the extra power and
space for more interesting things (like larger battery, more sensors etc.).

3\. It's uncontrollable: Apple prefers vendors go through their programs to
ensure quality and compliance, but we have players like Square, who use the
headphone port for credit card swiping. They do it just so they don't have to
pay Apple for licensing a Lightning solution.

~~~
xaqfox
"They do it just so they don't have to pay Apple for licensing a Lightning
solution."

Cross-platform support for their hardware would be the killer feature of using
the headphone port.

~~~
mantrax5
Cross-platform support for their hardware is not something the typical user
will take advantage of.

If the user has an iPhone they can buy the Lightning version, and if they use
an Android phone, they can buy the micro USB version.

But chances are the user won't be switching the card reader from one device to
another all the time.

------
joewalnes
This seems like FUD. Being able to stream audio through Lightning is necessary
for audio docks and other accessories. It's quite a leap to say they're going
to remove the headphone jack.

~~~
Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0
Didn't all the accessories that relied on the old 30-pin connector stop
working when Apple switched to Lightning a few years back?

~~~
wil421
I think you can use the lightening adapter on older accessories. This is the
case for my logitech speakers I bought 3 years or more ago.

~~~
kubiiii
Same for the quite advanced Alesis IO dock.

------
AdamFernandez
No one who listens to audio through headphones EVER charges their phone at the
same time. What an impossible scenario.

~~~
bernatfp
Not that impossible. I listen to music on my iPhone while charging it when I'm
on my secondary laptop and Internet connection is too slow for streaming music
over iTunes Match.

~~~
AdamFernandez
I do as well. I also listen to it while driving, and charge at the same time.
I was being slightly sarcastic toward Apple, that they would scrap this
functionality.

------
alenox
Step 1 - Wild speculation on something Apple might be doing. Step 2 - Why we
are all doomed! Step 3 - Shame on you Apple!

~~~
SrslyJosh
Financial news is clowns all the way down.

------
jusben1369
This to me is by far the best explanation I've seen on the deal. And it's got
nothing to do with the headphone jack. [https://medium.com/@mvakulenko/to-
understand-beats-you-need-...](https://medium.com/@mvakulenko/to-understand-
beats-you-need-to-understand-lady-gaga-e334de3da6d2)

Sample quote around how artists see themselves today: "“It was more about
building a platform on top of music—because music, we realized, sells
everything but music.”

EDIT: And off topic why I don't take anything on Forbes seriously anymore.
They've destroyed that brand: [https://medium.com/climate-
confidential/content-used-to-be-k...](https://medium.com/climate-
confidential/content-used-to-be-king-now-its-the-joker-d40703c18c73)

------
al2o3cr
Y'know, Forbes, there's enough somewhat-questionable stuff that Apple gets up
to that an utterly unsubstantiated "well, they MIGHT be doing this and it
would be BAAAAD" post is really not needed.

------
aditya
Wild theory: the bezel has 4 sensors - including the earpiece, FaceTime
camera, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor[1]

They already have a patent to put the proximity/light sensor in the display,
now they're removing the earpiece. If they get rid of the camera, they won't
need a bezel. Boom?

[1] [http://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/05/solar-cell-ambient-
light...](http://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/05/solar-cell-ambient-light-sensor-
patent/)

------
character0
I don't see much of an upside doing this. Better audio? Not anything that will
be discernible to the regular user. More controls on the headphone wire? This
reminds me of the remotes that came paired with a lot of minidisc players;
there is no need for a second screen if it's wired. This seems like a step in
the wrong direction with the push for wearables that could communicate
wirelessly.

~~~
nwh
> I don't see much of an upside doing this.

Well you ditch the huge, thick lightning connector for starters. That's why
the MacBook Pro doesn't have ethernet anymore, it's just too thick for the
case.

~~~
jws
Assuming you mean "ditch the huge, thick _coax_ connector", yes. That make's
some sense. Looking at the end of an iPhone the audio jack is the largest
element by some margin.

One wonders about a "watch". Would you want to plug headphones into it? The
thickness would be significant there. (I view the "watch" as a notification
and acknowledgement interface as an adjunct to a mobile device. I think it
makes more sense to plug the headphone/microphone into the larger device from
a battery standpoint. Headphone cables down a long sleeved shirt make some
sense though.)

Orthogonally, Apple just sprouted a bunch of ways to interact between devices
at the WWDC. Maybe a person that would wear gigantic headphones would not wear
a "watch", but would handle their acknowledgment functions through some
interface on their head ornaments.

~~~
nwh
> _Assuming you mean "ditch the huge, thick coax connector", yes._

Whoops, lost a bit of meaning when I revised that sentence and didn't look
over it.

I'm not really sure what to think of the whole "watch" thing, even if it is a
real thing that going to happen I can't see it being anything like people
expect it to be. Having headphones plugged in would be a little weird, I just
tried it then by taping my headphones plug to my wrist and found it got
tangled in almost everything I tried to do.

------
ianamartin
I think the article misses the most obvious point: Apple wants to make phones
thinner than having a headphone jack allows.

------
cweiss
What about all the various credit card dongles (Square, PayPal, etc) that rely
on the audio jack for output? Currently, the major players give the dongles
away for free because they're fairly cheap to manufacture. What happens when
Apple does away with the headphone jack and forces a licensing fee for the new
interface?

------
higherpurpose
So Apple cares so much about audio quality...that they bought Beats? Does not
compute.

~~~
tomschlick
My thought is that they will probably revamp the entire line of beats products
to be up to apple quality for hardware. They bought it for the brand name and
the streaming service.

------
bernatfp
Something that I can see happening eventually. Externally, the audio jack is
the most constraining part of the iPhone. Removing it would mean slimmer
iPhones, and makes sense with this trend of bigger screens and slimmer
devices.

------
brador
Wireless headphones. Induction charging. I see where they're going. Completely
waterproof closed phone. Solution to their number 1 returns issue.

~~~
cube13
Man, you can tell it's June, because this stuff is coming out again. :)

------
skywhopper
Far more likely is all-bluetooth headphones.

------
josephpmay
I somehow doubt this will happen. What if I want to charge my phone while
listening to music?

~~~
contactmatts
I do this all the time at work.

------
tadasZ
I don't think this will happen, as it would be a DISASTER.

