Whats being overlooked in most of the comments here is that Apple is killing off the only non-licensed hardware input that their iDevices had since the beginnin

Whats being overlooked in most of the comments here is that Apple is killing off the only non-licensed hardware input that their iDevices had since the beginning, and the one without which a number of companies, including Square would probably not exist. Im not sure about this day in age, but as someone working on hardware adapter feeding a stream of data into the iPhone in 2009 and 2010, the cost of getting into an MFI(or whatever the licensing term for hardware/bluetooth interoperability with iDevices was) was cost prohibitive and largely NDA-d out for smaller startups. So we went with the audio input just like Square did. Unless something has changed in Apple's attitude to licensing and interoperability, the door has just been shut close for companies trying to innovate with other hardware products interacting with iDevices.