We don't need a thinner iPhone if that means killing the headphone jack

They trimmed a few millimeters off the edge of the device so that the clip used to clip it to your clothing could no longer be operated easily. My fingers kept slipping off the clip when trying to operate it.

The previous model iPod shuffle was, I think, one of the finest designed consumer electronics ever - it didn't need anything changed. But Apple just had to go make it smaller.

Apple seems to have come to believe that smaller is better when in fact there is an optimal size and any smaller is detrimental to usability. Apple doesn't understand the concept of "the right size", all it wants to do is stroke its own ego by making things smaller.

I miss that old iPod shuffle design. I would have kept buying them buy they are no longer available, and I'm not going to buy the crappy new useless super tiny design.

Who is Apple listening to? Are there people out there who think the iPhone should be thinner? (That was a rhetorical question. Of course there's someone reading this that is going to say yes. I get that. But I don't believe for a moment that most iPhone users want a thinner phone.)

Im not sure about this day in age, but as someone working on hardware adapter feeding a stream of data into the iPhone in 2009 and 2010, the cost of getting into an MFI(or whatever the licensing term for hardware/bluetooth interoperability with iDevices was) was cost prohibitive and largely NDA-d out for smaller startups. So we went with the audio input just like Square did.

Unless something has changed in Apple's attitude to licensing and interoperability, the door has just been shut close for companies trying to innovate with other hardware products interacting with iDevices.

You say bluetooth, but that requires another battery and is much more expensive to make that a pair of earbuds. Also Apple is now a top tier member of the Bluetooth SIG, which controls the bluetooth standard and trademarks. Expect your Extend phase for bluetooth soon. I personally expect nothing less from the anti-standards anti-interoperability Apple.

The difference with floppies and optical drives was that many people were using alternative delivery and storage methods already. Many of us welcomed fewer moving parts in our computers. That doesn't apply here.

Oh, and anybody who is surprised by such a mentality might want to refresh a few historical examples. CD-Rom drives, gone. Final Cut? Turned into consumer-class software. Now they have a high-priced laptop with a single connector which really doesn't make sense for live performers and professionals. It's kind of how the company does business, so yeah I buy this rumor somewhat.

I rarely use corded headphones and would not miss the jack.

Good proofreading Verge. Also blanket statements like "no one is clamoring for a thinner iPhone".

I look forward to iPhone removing the headphone jack, making a thinner, lighter phone, and also propelling forward the market demand for bluetooth headphones. I love my Jaybirds, but there needs to be more players in the market.

I mean, it would also be great if it also shipped with a lightning -> 3.5mm adapter, but there is almost no chance of that happening. You can buy one for 40$.

No, the sound quality is not as good as my wired Etymotics, but being unattached to the phone is often preferable. These things are head and shoulders the best bang/buck I've ever had in consumer electronics. Stockpiled 3 pairs.

But somehow everything went the standardization way, so why on earth would this (alleged) Apple's move be considered progress, I have no idea.

Also don't really see why 3.5mm jack "needs to be replaced". MicroUSB is worse imo.

Meanwhile, my much younger iPhone5, I've gone through 3 Lightening cables and of the 3, 2 have fully blown out. They are complete crap.

The iPhone5 headphone cables are okay-ish and better quality compared to the Lightening cable.

Get rid of the stupid crappy made Lightening and keep the headphone jack. Figure out why the Lightening cables are such crap and fix them!

What I do have a problem with is thinness for thinness' sake. I upgraded from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 6—skipping the 4S, 5 and 5S—and noticed no improvement in battery life! We're talking brand new day-one battery performance comparable to a busted 2 year old phone. I can't go a whole day without needing to recharge my 6. I can't believe Apple hasn't gotten into the battery bank game yet since I now own several of them and can't live without them.

Stopping me making phones thinner. Make the battery bigger!

That's pure speculation. No clue what that functionality might be. What if they were leveraging the processing power of the iPhone to achieve some kind of adaptive noise canceling on any headphones? I don't know.

I do know this: this isn't like dropping the floppy drive or optical drives on Macs. By the time those were dropped, hardly anybody was using those features on their Macs. But a casual glance around any plane or public transit tells you that a lot people use their headphone jacks all the time.

Who wants to buy expensive certified headphones or wireless in all cases? Headphones are pure commodity -- they can be had for $3.

I wouldn't buy another iOS device if this happens.

The bigger problem lies with the use of Lightning to begin with, rather than a standard like USB type-C. That would solve the power problem: adapters exist to split out power and other ports from a single type-C port. It would also solve the "only works with" problem, since normal USB headphones would work, or analog-over-type-C devices; that, unfortunately, makes it far less likely to happen on an iDevice.

I look forward to incredibly thin Android devices with nothing except type-C, though.

The could have things like existing microUSB-to-HDMI adapters for mobile devices, where the adapter also has a charging-only microUSB port.

Or it could use wireless charging.

Or Apple, who is great at optimizing for what they perceive to be the most common use case and selling it as all people need, might just consider simultaneous charging and headphone use as an unimportant niche case.

Modern mobile headphones, speakers, and automobiles attach to the device via Bluetooth. If am doing high-fidelity listening using good headphones, I'm not playing the audio from my phone anyway; I am at home with my proper audio equipment. I don't know anyone who uses the headphone port on their phone.

That said, I agree that I'm not clamoring for an ultra-thin device, principally because I don't find it particularly easy to hold a super thin phone. I'm not ruling out the possibility that an ultra-thin device could be designed that is easy to hold, but of all the problems I have with mobile computing, thickness is not in my top 50 complaints. In fact, subjective or apparent fragility is more a concern than thickness, and reducing thickness will inevitably (I feel) increase apparent fragility.

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MKLD2AM/A/beats-by-dr-dre-...

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Oops.

One word - adapter.

Sure, it will be a bit of a pain in the mean time, but worth it in the long run.

There could be two lighting ports. After all, there is currently a lighting port and a 3.5mm jack, so why would replacing the jack with a lightning port be out of the question?

But what if I want to play music at a party?

Use Bluetooth.

But my current set of headphones won't work!

Get a new pair. Think that's ridiculous? Most people buy new headphones pretty often, it's not that hard to imagine that in a year's time when the iPhone 7 comes out that people who don't currently have Bluetooth headphones (which would work anyway) or a lighting port compatible set of headphones that aren't satisfied with the set that ship with the iPhone (probably not an overwhelming percentage) wouldn't buy a new set.

Bluetooth stereo headsets have been available for years. It's time for the all-wireless phone - wireless charging, wireless everything else. Waterproof, too.

Are people still using iDweebs with their silly white wires?