It’s been a year since Apple became the first major brand to remove headphone jack from smart phones. I have spent a year with the iPhone 7, and I continue to struggle with the lack of a headphone jack. I know I am not alone in this. It’s not hard to forget your Apple bundled lightning earphones at home. You can’t even borrow earphones from Android or PC users anymore. Sometimes you just want to keep one 3.5mm earphone with you to use with both your iPhone and MacBook. Then you realize you have forgotten to bring the right dongle with you.
This is not the first time Apple has controversially removed something from their products. They have been doing it for years. Here is a look at some other mainstream technologies that Apple removed, which directly contributed to their global demise.
- Floppy Drive (removed in 1997)
- CRT Monitors (in 2006)
- Adobe Flash Support in Mobile (in 2007)
- Optical Drives in laptops (in 2007)
- Smartphone keyboards (in 2007)
- Laptop Touchpad Buttons (in 2008)
Admittedly, not all these removals were criticized but they were still unprecedented at the time. To Apple’s credit they always replace the features they killed with something better.
Apple always replaces the features they kill with something better
Many were upset at the time when Apple removed all those things. But now a decade later you don’t hear many people complaining. One would argue that Apple paved the way for better technologies by killing the older ones, for example:
- Floppy Drives were replaced by USB flash drives which were cheaper and fast. Not to mention, higher in capacity. Interestingly even USB drives are disappearing as everyone moves to cloud storage in a world where everyone is always connected.
- CRT Monitors were replaced with thinner, better, and higher resolution flat screen displays.
- The death of Adobe Flash paved the way for mass adoption of HTML5 based video.
- Optical Drives are almost dead. Everyone these days get their software, music, and videos from the internet. When was the last time you bought a CD/DVD for your computer?
- Smartphone keyboard removals directly resulted in bigger screens and software-based keyboards. This opened the door for multi-language writing and of course swiping.
- Laptop Touchpad Buttons were replaced with much bigger touch-sensitive pads that can work with gentle taps. Touchpads have gotten bigger, smoother, and more convenient to use. People rarely need to use a mouse with a laptop anymore.
Looking back, it’s obvious that most of the features Apple helped to kill are no longer missed today. We might even thank Apple for killing them because we got something much better in return.
Will others follow Apple and remove the headphone jack?
One of the reasons technologies that Apple remove usually suffer a quick death is because everyone follows Apple’s lead. Once Apple kills a feature the rest of the world follows soon enough. The only question is will everyone follow Apple this time? So far, it doesn’t seem to be the case.
I reckon this is only temporary. If history tells us anything then I bet five years from now there will be very few phones that still offer the headphone jack. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Of course, I could be wrong in my bet but that is not a terrible thing. It just means the world no longer follows Apple blindly anymore.
Let’s carefully look at what the removal of headphone jack means. For starters, this time is no different. Many people are upset at the removal of the headphone jack. I have personally found it to be a real inconvenience sometimes. But I am not convinced that Apple has a made a big mistake.
The have made some mistakes, for example they removed the headphone jack but instead of switching to a common interface like USB-C, they instead moved the audio to their proprietary lightning connector. That doesn’t mean others won’t follow this time. I bet they will still remove headphone jack and move it to USB-C instead. In a way Apple still gets to change a globally used technology.
We can’t really say lightning or USB-C is better than 3.5mm headphone jack, can we? What’s the obvious benefit to users? Sure, phones get thinner this way, but the drawback is paying extra for all those dongles.
What’s the technology replacing the headphone jack?
Could it be that lightning or USB-C isn’t the true successor to 3.5mm? I think so. I believe the true technology that’s replacing the 3.5mm headphone jack is wireless audio. So, in fact Apple’s new AirPods are the true replacement for the removal of the headphone jack.
AirPods are the world’s first mass-market wireless earphones. As with anything new there’s always room for improvement but this is a great start already. AirPods’ success will usher-in an era of better and cheaper wireless earphones with exceptional battery life.
In 10 years’, wireless earphones will sound better than ever and cost even less. This will happen because massive competition is erupting in this segment right now. All this is happening due to Apple jumping in to this segment. Also, not to mention the fact that people are finally buying wireless earphones by the millions.
Soon every phone manufacturer will be coming out with their own competitor to AirPods. It is not that hard to imagine wireless earphones being included as a standard accessory in every iPhone and Samsung Galaxy at some point in the future.
AirPods and it’s success
After a year with AirPods I bet you will find it hard to move back to any wired audio device. AirPods have been a massive success for Apple already. So much that there are hundreds of wireless audio pods available now.
I wouldn’t be surprised if most people didn’t go wireless in the next 5 years. And, if history is any indicator, then 10 years from no one will be complaining about day Apple killed the headphone jack.
No matter how much we hate Apple for these painful changes there is almost always an industry-wide impact. Quite often we end-up with much better technology eventually, even if all that technology doesn’t come directly from Apple.
A good example of this is the amazing OLED displays found in Samsung phones today. Apple was the first one to remove physical keyboards from a phone and replacing it with a bigger touch screen. Samsung made the next jump in increasing the display size, quality, and resolution even beyond what Apple had envisioned.
While Apple is no longer the same company it used to be under Steve Jobs, their immense influence on the global industry continues. Anything Apples touches turns to gold. Everyone looks at Apple to set future trends.
Why Apple always wins ?
Although in recent years Apple has left the challenging work of innovation to other companies, the result hasn’t changed much. The only thing that has changed are Apple’s tactics. Nowadays Apple waits for the right opportunity, then takes the world by storm by introducing their version of something that already existed. To be fair though, Apple’s execution is often better than everyone else’s. Nevertheless, Apple is the main force that drives global adoption of new technologies. Apple brings stability to technologies that would otherwise struggle to gain traction. Even Apple’s competitors know this well.
A good example of this is NFC payments. For years competitors touted NFC technology and their future in wireless payment, but it never really caught on. It was only after Apple Pay was introduced that this whole segment exploded. Now there are more types of NFC-payment platforms than I can count. Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, <Insert Brand> Pay, and so on.
So, the point I have been getting at is this. No matter what the evil profit-seeking Apple may have had in their mind to kill the headphone jack, in the long-term it still may turn out to be a positive thing for all of us.
Our children may not even know what a headphone jack is and why one was ever needed. Hopefully, we are still alive then to try and convince them otherwise.
What do you think about Apple’s headphone jack removal? Do you agree that any technology Apple adopts will become universally used eventually? Let us know in the comments below.