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To step away from sales, since everyone seems so focused on headphone jacks/MBPt. I think a lot of the uproar this year will subside over the next 1-2 years and

by tarikjn 10y ago

To step away from sales, since everyone seems so focused on headphone jacks/MBPt. I think a lot of the uproar this year will subside over the next 1-2 years and the decisions Apple made will make sense. Apple has always made controversial decisions of this fashion in its history, many today don't remember because they weren't Apple customers then. I think those who said Steve Jobs wouldn't have let these decisions happen couldn't be further from the truth. But these decisions have usually paid off, there just were less people then to notice/complain. A lot of the decisions made on the products released last year actually make a lot of sense to me. If anything, Apple should simply stop including the earpods with the iPhone to reduce confusion and waste. Moving away from the headphone jack is not just about wireless and space, but making the DAC part of the speakers/drivers system. The lightning port is destined to disappear eventually too, with induction or wireless charging. I think a lot of this is the result of Apple being ahead of the curve (and partly driving it), and is consistent with Apple looking ahead and delivering long-term value products. A wise investor would see the stance of the company keeping course for the vision in the face of such bad publicity as a good sign it hasn't lost its edge.

hrayr 10y ago
Typo "subside" not "subsidize", confused me a bit.
- tarikjn 10y ago
  corrected, thank you!
jbmorgado 10y ago
Apple's decisions "won't make sense" in 2 years, just like they don't make sense now. There is just no rational narrative applicable when Apple launches their 2 flaghip products separated by 2 months (iPhone and MacBook Pro) and they have totally different ports. That's a complete lack of strategy like the two teams didn't communicate with eachother.
swang 10y ago
> I think a lot of the uproar this year will subside over the next 1-2 years and the decisions Apple made will make sense. Uh, they subside because people don't want to argue over stuff that happened 1-2 years ago... do you still argue about apple's change from it's 30-pin to lightning connector that happened in 2012? no, because you either 1: just dealt with the annoyance that you had to rebuy charging cables or 2: decide buying these cables was not worth your loyalty to apple and just stopped buying iphones. i'm not going to argue about the new iphone only having a lightning connector and no headphone jack in 2 years. why? because i'll either be using a device that actually has a headphone jack or i'll just give in and buy lightning headphones. the difference between the "uproar" is whether this causes people to start rethinking buying an iphone. another thing: the decisions apple made for the macbook pro will _probably_ make sense in 2 years, the problem is this laptop exists now. not 1-2 years from now when, "it will make sense"
- DanHulton 10y ago
  I mean, I went from being super mad about lightning to really appreciating it. It plugs in exactly right every time and doesn't take up 50% of the width of the bottom of my phone. And I recently went from "kinda upset about the headphone jack" to "oh man, these airpods are infinitely better", so... Oh, and I also checked out the 13" Mac Pro in-store. I was a very upset Mac Air aficionado, but I could see myself using the base-level 13" Mac Pro. I'm not mad anymore about these things, I've just come around.
  - stouset 10y ago
    And honestly, having both used Lightning and USB-C… USB-C is a dog. It's terrible. It doesn't attach as securely and it's yet another female-masquerading-as-male connector with a bunch of microscopic moving parts that will inevitably wear out and/or fail. I could not be happier with the Lightning connector, I just wish Apple had opened the standard or proposed its use for USB.
willtim 10y ago
The headphone jack is beautifully simple, DRM free, sounds good enough even for audiophiles and has been around for over 100 years. Buying a decent pair of headphones with a jack is a worthwhile investment. Buying "lightning" anything, much less so.
- tarikjn 10y ago
  You don't necessarily have to buy lightning headphones (I wouldn't) or stop using the audio jack. Audiophiles have already been using lightning to audio jack DACs, even when the iPhone still had a jack port, for superior audio quality. You can also connect your jack headphones to a clip-on bluetooth DAC. So nothing wrong with the audio jack, it's just that exporting it from the phone usually makes for a better user experience. Ultimately earphones should not be tied to a device but thought of as tied to your head and be able to switch between your devices seamlessly.
  - saghm 10y ago
    > So nothing wrong with the audio jack, it's just that exporting it from the phone usually makes for a better user experience. I feel like "usually" is a kind of a big leap here, since there's been exactly one phone to do this, and the verdict is still out about whether it's a "better user experience". > Ultimately earphones should not be tied to a device but thought of as tied to your head and be able to switch between your devices seamlessly. That's exactly what we had before when every single device had a headphone jack. I'm not sure having my headphones work normally on most devices but then randomly need a dongle for another is "seamless".
- jsz0 10y ago
  > Buying a decent pair of headphones with a jack is a worthwhile investment. The funny thing is they'll probably come with a quarter inch adapter because a lot of Pro audio gear and some of the highest quality vintage stereo equipment ever made only have quarter inch jacks.
deleted 10y ago
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by tarikjn 10y ago

hrayr 10y ago

Typo "subside" not "subsidize", confused me a bit.

tarikjn 10y ago
corrected, thank you!

jbmorgado 10y ago

Apple's decisions "won't make sense" in 2 years, just like they don't make sense now. There is just no rational narrative applicable when Apple launches their 2 flaghip products separated by 2 months (iPhone and MacBook Pro) and they have totally different ports. That's a complete lack of strategy like the two teams didn't communicate with eachother.

swang 10y ago

> I think a lot of the uproar this year will subside over the next 1-2 years and the decisions Apple made will make sense. Uh, they subside because people don't want to argue over stuff that happened 1-2 years ago... do you still argue about apple's change from it's 30-pin to lightning connector that happened in 2012? no, because you either 1: just dealt with the annoyance that you had to rebuy charging cables or 2: decide buying these cables was not worth your loyalty to apple and just stopped buying iphones. i'm not going to argue about the new iphone only having a lightning connector and no headphone jack in 2 years. why? because i'll either be using a device that actually has a headphone jack or i'll just give in and buy lightning headphones. the difference between the "uproar" is whether this causes people to start rethinking buying an iphone. another thing: the decisions apple made for the macbook pro will _probably_ make sense in 2 years, the problem is this laptop exists now. not 1-2 years from now when, "it will make sense"

DanHulton 10y ago
I mean, I went from being super mad about lightning to really appreciating it. It plugs in exactly right every time and doesn't take up 50% of the width of the bottom of my phone. And I recently went from "kinda upset about the headphone jack" to "oh man, these airpods are infinitely better", so... Oh, and I also checked out the 13" Mac Pro in-store. I was a very upset Mac Air aficionado, but I could see myself using the base-level 13" Mac Pro. I'm not mad anymore about these things, I've just come around.
- stouset 10y ago
  And honestly, having both used Lightning and USB-C… USB-C is a dog. It's terrible. It doesn't attach as securely and it's yet another female-masquerading-as-male connector with a bunch of microscopic moving parts that will inevitably wear out and/or fail. I could not be happier with the Lightning connector, I just wish Apple had opened the standard or proposed its use for USB.

willtim 10y ago

The headphone jack is beautifully simple, DRM free, sounds good enough even for audiophiles and has been around for over 100 years. Buying a decent pair of headphones with a jack is a worthwhile investment. Buying "lightning" anything, much less so.

tarikjn 10y ago
You don't necessarily have to buy lightning headphones (I wouldn't) or stop using the audio jack. Audiophiles have already been using lightning to audio jack DACs, even when the iPhone still had a jack port, for superior audio quality. You can also connect your jack headphones to a clip-on bluetooth DAC. So nothing wrong with the audio jack, it's just that exporting it from the phone usually makes for a better user experience. Ultimately earphones should not be tied to a device but thought of as tied to your head and be able to switch between your devices seamlessly.
- saghm 10y ago
  > So nothing wrong with the audio jack, it's just that exporting it from the phone usually makes for a better user experience. I feel like "usually" is a kind of a big leap here, since there's been exactly one phone to do this, and the verdict is still out about whether it's a "better user experience". > Ultimately earphones should not be tied to a device but thought of as tied to your head and be able to switch between your devices seamlessly. That's exactly what we had before when every single device had a headphone jack. I'm not sure having my headphones work normally on most devices but then randomly need a dongle for another is "seamless".
jsz0 10y ago
> Buying a decent pair of headphones with a jack is a worthwhile investment. The funny thing is they'll probably come with a quarter inch adapter because a lot of Pro audio gear and some of the highest quality vintage stereo equipment ever made only have quarter inch jacks.

deleted 10y ago

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