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Great points, and mostly agree. 1. as far as I know, the jack takes up quite a bit of volume, it's a long and empty space, that could be used for battery, heats

Great points, and mostly agree. 1. as far as I know, the jack takes up quite a bit of volume, it's a long and empty space, that could be used for battery, heatsink etc. It's a minor save, but smartphones are some of the most volume-dependent devices, and marginal benefits can be high. i.e. most users may swing around say 4 hours of screen on-time, and get frustrated with 3.8h of capacity. Small increases can push them over the contentness-edge. I'm very much reaching here, it's not a very compelling argument imo, but there's some benefit there nonetheless. 2. So apparently I'm the edge case who never charges while listening, it's just not a thing for me. I charge once, at night, and it's fine. (Galaxy S7). In a car I'm happy with my phone's speakers or a wireless setup, and in newer cars especially a usb-audio or bluetooth audio setup shouldn't be a problem. (ignoring obvious transition issues). And especially here, in a private, safe, storage area like a car is, I'm okay (obviously not thrilled) to buy and one-time mount a $25 dongle. Not the end of the world for me. Same with my fixed office space, and that's about all big usecases I can think of. 3. Completely agree, however it must be noted that stuff like this pushes wireless audio quality forward. There's suddenly a forced market demand when the port drops, which opens up industry incentives to push wireless price/performance ratio improvements which I feel are around the corner (and partially announced already). And tech wise a lot more is possible than the quality we've had in the past years. And price wise, a LOT more should be possible than the past few years of price points. Also I'm expecting Apple (let's not forget, a producer of custom earbuds for years, and buyer of Beats) to drop decent wireless tech, too. I want good wireless audio tech regardless of whether I'm forced to use it lacking a port or not. (!) Again, obvious transition issues but it's alright. 4. Rumours are hey're looking to reinvent their base model with oled screens, no home button, edge to edge screen, delayed to 2017. i.e. a move away from a phone that has ports and buttons, towards a device that's completely digital, mostly screen and almost fully wireless. And I think that makes a lot of sense, stylistically too, if rumours are true and they can pull it off. That can reinvigorate sales, because let's be fair, the iPhone 6 was 'good enough', kind of like the Nexus 5 (still a lovely phone I'd happily use) was for the mid-section, the 6 was at the top-end of the market. I've got lots of friends with a 6 who just don't care for iterations. Something radical is needed to get them to buy, and dropping this port long-term as part of the 10y iPhone anniversary update is part of that narrative. Lots of speculation here of course, just thinking out loud to try and discuss your questions.

gergles 10y ago
> There's suddenly a forced market demand when the port drops, which opens up industry incentives to push wireless price/performance ratio improvements which I feel are around the corner (and partially announced already). Bluetooth will be great next year! (People have been saying this about Bluetooth since 1999.)
markbao 10y ago
Thanks for your thoughtful response. Some things that came to mind: > 1. as far as I know, the jack takes up quite a bit of volume, it's a long and empty space, that could be used for battery, heatsink etc. This is a good idea in theory, but in this particular case, what is being said now is that the phone will be thinner by 1mm. I'm very, very much for more battery – even with a Plus I don't have enough – but Apple tends not to handle these tradeoffs with an eye toward functional improvements. What I worry about is being able to shave off a millimeter off the thickness of the phone, but then having to carry around an adapter or two that will easily outweigh the space savings. As you say, in stationary situations like car/office, it's not a big deal, but in those situations, neither is the thickness of the phone or battery life, really. > 3. ... There's suddenly a forced market demand when the port drops, which opens up industry incentives to push wireless price/performance ratio improvements which I feel are around the corner (and partially announced already). Unfortunately I can only speculate as to what will happen. The plausible explanation is that the market will be able to generate excellent alternatives that become the gold standard, but as my sibling commenter says, this has been said of Bluetooth for a long time. I'm not confident that Bluetooth will be able to catch up soon enough, given its history and how far it lags behind today in sound quality, cost, and reliability. With that said, this will certainly be a big shock that may cause the desired shift, or Apple might have new wireless audio technology up their sleeves (though I shudder at the thought of another closed A/V standard) – and the 90% of people who don't care too much for audio quality will probably be unaffected on this dimension.

gergles 10y ago

> There's suddenly a forced market demand when the port drops, which opens up industry incentives to push wireless price/performance ratio improvements which I feel are around the corner (and partially announced already). Bluetooth will be great next year! (People have been saying this about Bluetooth since 1999.)

markbao 10y ago

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Some things that came to mind: > 1. as far as I know, the jack takes up quite a bit of volume, it's a long and empty space, that could be used for battery, heatsink etc. This is a good idea in theory, but in this particular case, what is being said now is that the phone will be thinner by 1mm. I'm very, very much for more battery – even with a Plus I don't have enough – but Apple tends not to handle these tradeoffs with an eye toward functional improvements. What I worry about is being able to shave off a millimeter off the thickness of the phone, but then having to carry around an adapter or two that will easily outweigh the space savings. As you say, in stationary situations like car/office, it's not a big deal, but in those situations, neither is the thickness of the phone or battery life, really. > 3. ... There's suddenly a forced market demand when the port drops, which opens up industry incentives to push wireless price/performance ratio improvements which I feel are around the corner (and partially announced already). Unfortunately I can only speculate as to what will happen. The plausible explanation is that the market will be able to generate excellent alternatives that become the gold standard, but as my sibling commenter says, this has been said of Bluetooth for a long time. I'm not confident that Bluetooth will be able to catch up soon enough, given its history and how far it lags behind today in sound quality, cost, and reliability. With that said, this will certainly be a big shock that may cause the desired shift, or Apple might have new wireless audio technology up their sleeves (though I shudder at the thought of another closed A/V standard) – and the 90% of people who don't care too much for audio quality will probably be unaffected on this dimension.