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Comment by ingenieros | Hacker News Reader

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBma82g3Uag Young Steve warned us about the risk of having "toner heads" running tech monopolies. So weird that it was Jobs himself who picked this guy to be his successor just as they were becoming the biggest corporation in the world.

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IMHO, Apple removing headphone jack and legacy ports is exactly the kind of things that opposite of having "toner heads" running the company. If "toner heads" are really running Apple they will be scared taking the risk and moving forward because they know it will hurt sales. If "toner heads" are really running Apple they will not take the risks of creating a new interaction model with unproven reception among customers.

I love Apple for this and I am buying the new Macbook Pro tomorrow. :)

The headphone jack is not a legacy port. It is the single most impressive industrial design for a port in history. That's the reason it lasted so long and also the reason it will outlive any wireless nonsense apple brings out to increase their landfill impact.

Speaking for myself, I hate headphone cables. They always get knotted up when stored away, and they're always getting caught on things while I'm wearing the headphones.

I'm looking forwards to when wireless headphones are more ubiquitous and cheaper.

Wireless will never have as good of a sound quality as wired does, however. It's a trade-off.

I don't have any specific knowledge about this stuff, but how could that possibly be true?

If quality is just a matter of sending enough information through then why could wireless never be enough?

It's just that you will always have a better connection and be able to send more over a wire. cat5/6/7 vs. wifi, wired vs. wireless power, etc.

Surely you've seen a speed difference with a wired internet connection compared to wireless?

The issue is really: how much do you need to be able to send before you reach the limits of human hearing (our ability to distinguish any differences), and will wireless be able to cater to that or a reasonable approximation to that?

> Surely you've seen a speed difference with a wired internet connection compared to wireless?

yeah, but note also that what I was responding to was you saying wireless would never have as good of a sound quality. "Never" is a long time.

That's a good point. If we are talking about the quality being indistinguishable to humans, it is probably possible at some point. Although I will probably stick with wired for a long time, as I have a nice wired headset, and I don't like the thought of my headphones not being charged!

Sure, headphone cables are a mess. So use wireless ones instead. For me; not having to ever charge my headphones far outweigh that hassle. As well as any issues with pairing and sound quality.

> I'm looking forwards to when wireless headphones are more ubiquitous and cheaper.

So wait for that before you remove the port. Otherwise we're just trading 3.5mm cable hassles for Lightning adapter/cable hassles.

>>> I'm looking forwards to when wireless headphones are more ubiquitous and cheaper.

> So wait for that before you remove the port.

Err, I was stating my personal opinion on wireless headphones. I'm not Apple.

Obviously people have different preferences on removing the port. I'm glad that it will help push the availability of wireless headphones, and speed up their marketplace penetration.

> Otherwise we're just trading 3.5mm cable hassles for Lightning adapter/cable hassles.

Again, for my own situation, I wouldn't have any Lightning adapter/cable hassles.

Personally, I don't want another thing to charge. The robustness and simplicity of the analog port still win in my book.

He talked pretty specifically about the marketing and sales departments taking over the company?

Is there any shred of proof that this has happened at Apple? How has their marketing budget developed over the last few years? Was replacing all the ports with USB-C a typical sales/marketing decision?

Maybe Apple has changed, but not in the way Steve talks about here if you ask me. The only thing that is relevant in that video is that Apple has indeed come to the point where they've gotten a very big monopoly-like position. And they're struggling with finding a new innovation/product which is as big a success as iPhone was. But I don't think they've changed how they've organized the company. It could just be that they haven't found the right opportunity yet. You can't force innovation.

And Microsoft is now being run by a techie product guy.

I don't think he expected anything more than what's currently happening to Apple. I think, on the contrary, Steve picked Tim knowing full well that it was the best card he could play for the company, being aware that since "his" Apple would fade away anyways, he might as well have an operations genius run the show to keep Apple burning until all that's left are ashes.

Steve Jobs, like everyone, said and did many things over the course of his life that can be seen as contradictory. When they're around to explain they can often give reasonable explanation for why there are exceptions or how their thoughts about something developed.

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