Apple may have taken away the headphone jack, but now, it appears that they are actively stopping third-party companies from bringing it back.
This all started in 2016 when Apple announced that the iPhone 7 would no longer have a headphone jack. I wrote a post calling for third-party case manufacturers to design a battery case that brought the headphone jack back. To my surprise, just a few months later I was contacted by multiple companies who were developing cases that did just that.
In December 2016, we filmed a video with the world's first iPhone 7 case with a working headphone jack. The case worked perfectly and we expected it to come to market in the near future but for some unknown reason, it never did. We reached out this manufacturer multiple times and never got a response. Other cases with headphone jacks started popping up around the web; some prototype reviews and others were on crowdfunding sites. From what I can tell, none of these cases ever made it to market either.
Fast forward to the iPhone X launch. My iPhone 6s' battery was almost useless and the update to IOS 11 crippled its speed. I decided to preorder the iPhone X even though I knew I would miss the headphone jack. I checked Amazon and to my surprise, there was a battery case with a headphone jack up for pre-order for $80. I bought it.
A few weeks later I got the phone and the case, and it worked! I could listen to music without a dongle and I could charge my phone at the same time. On the same day that I received the case in the mail I got an email from Amazon telling me that they were refunding me for my new case. They didn't ask me to mail it back or tell me why, they just gave me my $80 back. The listing for the case was completely removed from Amazon as well.
The highest rated case on Amazon with a headphone jack works via Bluetooth and it must be charged separately. That's such a ridiculous workaround.
At this point, I realized that something had to be going on. I started to try to contact every headphone case manufacturer I could find to figure out what was happening. Not a single one of them responded to me.
Later that month I updated my phone and the case stopped working. It now shows the error "This accessory is not supported by this device." Apple shut it down.
I understand that Apple likes to keep their ecosystem closed for quality control and that they are now licensing the lightning port out to third-party accessory makers. I know for a fact that the case manufacturer that we initially had contact with was going through this process. They told us that they were waiting on Apple's approval.
I think it's fair to say that Apple is blocking this type of accessory and I can't figure out why. Are they trying to sell more wireless headphones? If so, why include a free dongle in the box? Why did every case manufacturer stop responding to us? Does Apple have something to do with that too?
I'm sure that 99.9% of the people reading this don't care about the headphone jack at all, but that's not the point. The point is that it appears that once again Apple is actively trying to block third-party manufacturers from creating products that the public wants. Can you imagine if they blocked USB type A adapters for the new Macbooks? Just because Apple thinks that USB Type C is the future doesn't mean all of their customers are ready. If Apple wants to remove a feature from one of their products, that's their decision. But if a third party company is willing to pay them to license the port so that they can bring it back, Apple should welcome the extra cash and happy users.
If anyone has any additional information on this story I would love to hear it. Please leave a comment below.
Knowing Apple business model of a close ecosystem and not willing to play with other systems I can pretty much get to my own conclusion. I think they (fStoppers) arrive to a similar conclusion but are willing to give Apple the benefit of the doubt.They are awaiting some answers from Apple.
Let's see if those answers ever come.
No doubt it's fair. It's the way the article was written that bugs me. He didn't uncover anything outside of what people are already thinking which didn't take much work. He could have waited to publish after getting some more answers instead of just leaving us with more questions.
Right... and it's still poor journalism IMO.
Looks like Apple is playing the same game as Gates did with Windows at first, Looks like Anti Trust is coming for th bruised Apple
It's a domination thing. They want to have complete control over you with this device.
I have iPhone 7Plus and an old Apple TV2. Been working fine with airplay for ages. Until this morning. Now it just won't work at all. I also noticed that I had to unlock my phone with a passcode this morning. My wife's iPhone 5S also asked for it.
They are cool products, but you know, they don't belong to us. Apparently.
Just found this on Amazon. https://powerpluscases.com/products/iphone-x-waterproof-battery-extender...
Hmm
This happened to me in the UK, and now my adaptor doesn't work. I've always been an Apple product fan since 1980's, but they seem to have stopped listening to the people who have supported them for years.. I am a Pro Photographer and trainer, and when they stopped making the 17" MacBook PRO, and we asked why, they just said the new smaller screens are better. Nonesense, we need a bigger screen.... not a fancy little one. We also had issues here in the UK with them slowing down the IPhones when they got older, to force you into buying a new one. It's time Apple woke up and started listening before they run out of products ideas and loyal customers
Maybe it's time people stopped supporting their shoddy business practice...(?).
You are entitled to your opinion :-). So here is mine, my wife has he iPhone 6 plus (work phone), It is in all accounts inferior to my LG G5. From conversation quality, camera, battery, responsiveness (her phone lags constantly). Not to mention that I can receive texts with images from her phone as any other Apple or Android, but she cannot receive any from me (or other Android).
If people are willing to put up with it that's their prerogative.
Lee, it's simple. Apple knows that the over whelming majority of their customers will buy their products, no matter how crappy they treat them. Doesn't matter that the iPhone is behind in technology, it's Apple and people don't care - they will just bend over and take whatever Apple puts out. Even if it's not the most innovative solution out there.
True.
I don’t really care about the headphone jack as I now love my Bluetooth Marshall headphones. And it seems that every single manufacturer makes cordless headphones. Why bother with the silly cord? Seriously I don’t get it. Isn’t it like wanting phones with cord back?
Because I probably own 20 products that use a standard headphone jack at home and the office and they won’t work with Bluetooth. Headphones need to plug into the computer. Headphones need to plug into our cameras. Head phones plug into our audio recorder and my drum machine.
I see where you’re coming from, Lee. I meant it’s like fighting the good fight for cassettes and CDs but they will be replaced.
And would you problem be solved if your headphones (like mine) could be both cordless and wired?
The issue is not having a single pair of headphones. If I only had 1 pair it wouldn't be a big deal; I'd just leave the dongle attached to the headphones at all times. But between my house and Fstoppers we probably have 15 sets of headphones that are used for editing, filming, audio recording, and music recording. Literally, every other device uses the standard headphone jack and doesn't have a Bluetooth option. So yes, I guess I could sell everything and buy 15 sets of Bose wired/wireless headphones but that's pretty extreme and expensive.
we run music through usb copper wire and bluetooth in three suvs (Tacoma, BMW X5 & Porsche Cayenne). guess which sounds better on all 3 vehicles?
Hard wired.
I heard that. Is the difference so big you could hear it blindfolded?
Not sure why you had to give car models...
yes huge difference -three completely different audio systems illustrate wired's superiority over wireless.
I go to Wal-Mart to buy a simple over the ear headphone.. Should be easy right?? All I found was head sets with the microphone and bluetooth. I couldn't find a $20 over-the ear headphone.. Just the 50-60 bluetooth ones and the stick-it-in-your-ear sets.
So maybe it's good to get rid of the 3.5 jack and get with the times.. Complainants people may be still using VHS tapes and the 12" laser discs.
I do not have an Apple phone, but need a headphone jack for other reasons. A telephone company should not be allowed to prohibit use of this.
So Apple deliberately, rips you off selling their overpriced accessories and doing everything in their power to stop others from selling theirs. No company on the planet ever does that.
Yet, you still can't resist and support their shoddy business practice? We all know Apple has always been a greedy company, why are you so surprise?
One word - Greed.
I solved the Apple problem by migrating to Android. Between the difficulties of maintaining multiple photo libraries across 2 iMacs and 2 MacBook Pros and having to pay Apple monthly for the privilege of syncing MY images across all MY devices and the loss of the headphone jack, Apple can stuff it.
I do care about headphone jack, I don't wanna be worry about the battery of headphone...
It's a billion dollar "revenue stream". Apple sells about 250 million units of iPhones between 2014 ~ 2017 every year, the Apple lightening cable BOM is $3, the R&D, logistics ... etc the cost to Apple is around $4, the profit margin to Apple is $15 (give or take few dimes); so Apple makes about $1.5B minimum on lightening cable alone. With profit margin like that, I don't blame them.
From business point of view, why not milking your customers as long as you can and as much as you can if you can get away with it.
My biggest frustration with this whole thing not that my headphones are lightning is that my damn mac computers don't have a lightning jack in them. I can't tell you how often I go to listen to something from my computer and realize my headphones wont plug into it. If they want to make this switch they need to do it across all devices. Don't keep all the computers on 3.5mm i/o while forcing all the mobile users onto lightning.
I know, so weird.
Wow that's shady as Fak. Pffft nice goin Apple.
It is really simple, guys :). Apple can not control devices that connect to the 3.5 jack, be it a headphones or a Square dongle or something else. But it can and will control who is using it's Lightning port or Bluetooth connection. It can (and will) charge licensing fees, limit functionality of such devices or just shut them down at will. That is the ONLY reason they are so adamant about ditching standard jack.
And that dongle they put in the package is a joke. It makes sound so shitty that you will be better off using included headphones than that contraption. Been there tried that.
Bluetooth audio sucks, plain and simple. I'll always have a dongle and wired headphones until they get the audio right.
I hate the dongle, I hate that I can’t easily change from using my headphones on my phone to my laptop. I have fucking 3 headphones lying around to conveniently suit my needs for my phone, laptop and time when I need to often switch in between.
If my laptop had the same connection port, I wouldn’t mind too much, but it’s not the case.
The headphone jack is dead, long live anything else other than this ancient technology responsible for so much water corrosion is so many electric devices.
"I'm sure that 99.9% of the people reading this don't care about the headphone jack at all, but that's not the point. The point is that it appears that once again Apple is actively trying to block third-party manufacturers from creating products that the public wants."
Plus it's not dead. They still put it on their laptops, desktops, and tablets.
I don't understand why you just don't get a phone with a headphone jack. Don't buy the iPhone, really quite simple.
headphone jacks don't really matter tbh cause they're just delaying the rise of bluetooth technology. and eventually theyre just gonna ditch it
you can read it here :
http://theapplesheep.blogspot.in/2018/02/the-headphone-jack-must-die.html