One of the biggest changes expected when Tim Cook and his team reveal the new iPhone 7 family is the lack of a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack. Gigabytes of digital ink have been spilled about how this is a regressive idea, how this is Apple simply doing what it does with any legacy technology, and how this drives a further wedge between Android and iOS devices. No doubt the hot takes will continue, but the practical side of the future needs to be considered.
How practical are lightning-based headphones? Keaton Keller decided to find out, and has been hard at work to build his own set of lightning earpods, and has provided me with early access to his hardware.
Fashioned from an existing set of earpods and an official lightning cable, joined with a custom ControlTalk adaptor on the cable, this high-tech MacGyver is likely to match the supplied earpods that will ship with the new jack-less iPhones. Keller's earpods highlight a number of issues around the switch from 3.5mm to lightning port, namely charging, portability, and certification.
An obvious failure is that lightning earpods are going to block the port from being used to charge and connect the device. The latter is perhaps less of a concern with sync over Wi-fi available in iTunes and the increased use of the cloud for storage and transfer, but the former is going to be awkward. While 'charging and music' is not an everyday occurrence, the use of portable battery chargers and battery charging cases through the port will be restricted.
Apple could negate this with a pass-through lightning port on the headphone cable, or the use of alternative means to charge the phone (such as wireless charging) but these are all fudges. The cabled headphone solution is going to cause a connector jam.
It's also not going to be an easy task for someone to switch from another device and keep using their headphones. This is a very personal thing, but not everyone likes the bundled earpods or the modern style of fashion headphones (the likely first adopters of a lightning port standard). By removing the option to use your own headphones, Apple will put more emotional distance between the handset and the user.
No doubt there will be third-party adaptors easily available and Apple will likely have a highly-priced adaptor to allow 3.5mm headphones to continue to be used. That said, given Apple's ruthlessness in removing I/O options in the past, retrofitting headphone sockets through the lightning ports will be made as awkward as possible to help promote the move to Apple's new standard.
Finally, Keller notes that the iPhone 6S used would throw up error messages saying that the accessory was not approved. Peripheral manufacturers looking to use the lightning port will have to be part of the 'Made for iPhone' (MFI) certification program. Which means that Apple will have the ability to 'sign-off' on any major manufacturer looking to supply headphones that go though the lightning port, and pick up a licensing fee into the bargain.
The switch away from 3.5mm to lightning is something that many Apple watchers are convinced will happen (although there are arguments that the base iPhone 7 may retain the jack, while the iPhone 7S goes without). It reduces the ports in the phone, it reduces complexity and manufacturing cost, and it offers Apple a number of commercial advantages in the after-sales department. Perhaps it is even being implemented this year to 'clear the road' ahead of the more radical iPhone 8 expected to launch in 2017?
What is clear is that Apple needs to make a very strong positive case why the headphone jack is being removed when the technology is so ingrained into popular culture. 'Because it allows us to make the iPhone thinner' is not a good enough answer.
Now watch what else we know about the iPhone 7:
