At the risk of coming over as flippant and rude, don't buy the phone if it's that much of a problem. There is no reason you have to have an iPhone, there is no

At the risk of coming over as flippant and rude, don't buy the phone if it's that much of a problem. There is no reason you have to have an iPhone, there is no right/law that says Apple must maintain an old standard if they don't want to. Also, I'm sure Belkin/Anker will be making a little splitter that enables you to plug 3.5mm headphones and a lighting cable in at the same time. Many lighting docks already have 3.5mm jack socket in them for this purpose since when the phone is in the dock you can't plug headphones in.