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> so that smart phone makers can save $1 on each phone they sell What Apple mentioned in the iphone 7 reveal, which was when they made headlines for removing t
by throwaway07650 6y ago
> so that smart phone makers can save $1 on each phone they sell
What Apple mentioned in the iphone 7 reveal, which was when they made headlines for removing the jack, was that it is a bulky component that extends quite far into the phone, competing for precious real estate with other components.
- olyjohn 6y agoRight, which makes the phone easier to build and thus saves money. There's no getting around the fact that money is the #1 reason they have started omitting the jack. Apple has no other reason to leave out a feature that adds a convenient redundancy to a common use-case. There's literally no other negative to leave out the jack other than cost.
- throwaway07650 6y ago> There's literally no other negative to leave out the jack other than cost. I believe there is. When designing a product, one always operates within a given set of contraints. Removing one of the constraints of the design makes it easier to hit the rest of the objectives. You might argue that easier design = reduced costs but IMO that would be too loose of a definition of "costs" in this case. Consider the lower end of the market: budget phones have cheaper cameras, cheaper screens, cheaper processors - why? Because these are indeed good targets for cost cutting. They all have headphone jacks though. To me, that suggests that cost is not the issue here.
- mikepurvis 6y agoBut none of those ultra budget phones are trying to hit the weight or form-factor targets that Apple is.