The mystery of the missing headphone jack…
I was going to call it a “mistake” but that implies something about Apple’s goals in removing the headphone jack. For their purposes, I believe it was actually a great success. But lets get some context first.
Starting with the iMac in 1998, Apple began removing the disk drive from their computers. It was a good idea. They were at a revolutionary moment. Data was exploding and floppy disks with their fixed and limited capacity and slow transfer speeds were becoming irrelevant. USB and flash storage capacity was exploding and costs were rapidly falling, enabling more useful tools for data transfer.
The same thing happened with DVD drives starting in 2008 with the MacBook Air and following a few years later on the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines. Internet bandwidth was growing exponentially and that replaced most of the uses for DVD drives.
Within only a few years of both of these changes, PC makers of all brands would follow suit. While DVD drives (and even floppy drives) are still available they are increasingly obscure and niche. And we as users, don’t even think about it anymore. The replacements we use, like flash storage, are better in every conceivable way.
In those cases Apple made a bold choice. They didn’t directly benefit. It lowered manufacturing costs slightly and enabled smaller, more compact devices, but it didn’t open new profit centres for the company — they didn’t sell USB flash media or internet services. It was a decision which shed old outdated technologies and pushed computers forward.
Removing the headphone jack on iPhones has not had this same effect. The main result of removing the headphone jack has been the creation of a massive new profit centre for Apple. iPods and lightning adapters are nearly pure profit. To say nothing of MFi certification fees for third party products and adapters.
And the user experience? Well, I have one Bluetooth headset in the mail back to the manufacturer for repairs. I have one supposedly MFi certified lightning adapter on my shelf because it doesn’t work reliably with my phone (to say nothing of incompatibility with other phones). It sits beside four of five wired headphones and earbuds which I can no longer connect to my audio player. My other Bluetooth headphones are refusing to connect at the moment.
When they do work I can expect the audio to drop when I put my phone in my pocket and turn my head the other way. Even when it does connect the audio can be out of sync. The whole protocol is pretty flaky and unreliable. I’m not even an audiophile, those who are, I think would have an issue with the low fidelity sound transmission. And all that is entirely moot if I forget to charge the headphones.
Yes, I probably could get a more reliable Bluetooth device by spending hundreds of dollars on ear buds and some people like this option and are willing to spend that money on only average sounding audio devices. But nothing prevented them from doing that while also having a headphone jack on the phone. Removing it was Apple’s way of forcing users to buy their expensive accessories, and this is a policy that has been wildly profitable. Apple earned around 12 billion dollars every year in revenue from AirPods alone.
So, it’s 7 years later and I STILL don’t have a reliable way to get audio out of my music player. All doubt is gone. Apple’s decision to remove the headphone jack was not visionary or forward thinking, it was harmful to consumers, and only beneficial to Apple’s bottom line. It isn’t an example of Apple being bold and innovative, it’s an example of Apple using its market position to boost its profits at the cost of user experience.
Unfortunately, unlike other missteps Apple has made (removing all the ports from their MacBook line for example) I don’t see this one being reversed any time soon.
