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Comment by sodafountan | Hacker News Reader

While from a financial standpoint this would make sense, most of the guys making the executive decisions at Apple are design focused and oriented. Dropping the headphone jack differentiates Apple even more from its competition, makes the phone sleeker, helps with water proofing, makes the wireless headphones more appealing (which not only act as headphones but also communication devices). This was much more than just a financial move for Apple, and in my opinion it looks to be a smart one.

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It definitely differentiates them - into a company that now makes a device that I won't be buying.

> helps with water proofing

There are plenty of waterproof phones with headphone jacks.

And it may have involved tradeoffs in terms of internal space, design, etc. that Apple weren't willing to make.

It's highly unlikely that this played a role in their decision.

Waterproofing the headphone jack isn't more complicated than waterproofing the charging port.

Not to mention, they replaced the headphone jack with even more holes which also require sealing.

For me i estimate my iphone use as: 80% Music 8% Calling 8% email 2% browsing 2% other stuff

With that in mind removing the 3.5 jack does not make the phone sleeker you need to see the adapter as a part of the iPhone as the phone is mostly useless without it.

Actually I would consider the adapter part of the headphone cable since headphones (and other audio devices) are the only things that need it.

> makes the phone sleeker

It's the exact same size as the 6s.

The word sleek is unrelated to size, it refers to having an elegant, streamlined shape of design. Removing the 3.5mm jack does allow for a more sleek design.

The camera bump is a huge wart on the design, but they kept that and did not make the phone thicker to compensate. I question this rationale.

This is what I'm talking about. I don't really use my phone to play music that much (although it is definitely a non-zero amount). The dealbreaker for me is that they've made a device that doesn't lay flat without a case. Although, since it has that ugly bump on the back, it's not like I'd want to have the phone outside a case anyway.

Actually, it's not really about appearances for me. It's just that it wouldn't sit flat. Like a table with 1 leg that's an inch longer than the others at a shitty diner.

The only difference is on the bottom left they replaced the headphone hole with 6 speaker grill holes. Not sure why that's sleeker. https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/apple-l...

Because it's more symmetrical.

A Moto X has the same symmetry, and manages to keep both a 3.5mm port and a USB port on it.

How can it be symmetrical with a 3.5mm port? Does it have two of them?

You should look up what symmetry means.

> You should look up what symmetry means.

Are you... trying to imply I don't know what symmetry means? Unbelievable!

> How can it be symmetrical with a 3.5mm port? Does it have two of them?

You couldn't look it up yourself?

Put one 3.5mm port on the centerline at the top of the device, and the microUSB port on the centerline at the bottom of the device. There.

That's hogwash--no one cares about that. If anything, the move was done to expand room within the internals of the phone.

Yup. They did it to fit in the haptic feedback for the the new home button. I don't see how a 3.5mm jack would have fit after they put that in there.

I'd rather the jack, however.

Any idea why Apple is so doggedly pursuing haptic feedback for its touch button? The engine appears to take up a lot of room in the phone.

The only justication I see for it is that they're trying to unite the touch interface gestures of their Macbooks and phones.

Apple permanently lost their "sleek" cred when they introduced the camera bump on iPhone 6. No way in hell Steve Jobs would have released that monstrosity.

It's only smart on one hand (for the reasons you mention). On the other hand users will be pissed off at losing the convenience (yes, convenience) of plug and play headphones, along with the many other reasons why wired > wireless.

It may be a smart move in the end, but it's not obviously so at this point.

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