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iPhone-Headjack-Feature

For months, there've been rumors that Apple would remove the ubiquitous three.5mm headphone jack from its adjacent-generation iPhone. Those rumors got another heave yesterday when Cirrus Logic unveiled its new MFi Headset Development Kit. The new evolution board is "designed to help OEMs rapidly develop new Lightning-based digital headsets" and is already bachelor to gild.

Cirrus Logic claims that the new kit volition brand it easier to move from analog connections to digital hardware and improve audio quality cheers to an integrated DAC. Digital audio'due south other purported advantage is the potential to use custom equalizers to fine-melody sound.

CirrusLogic1

The new dev kit contains a grade gene reference blueprint, a debug board, MCU programming, and audio operation measurement tools. The company's PR besides notes that the "design tin be adapted to whatever headset form cistron, including earbuds and over-the-ear designs."

An upgrade no one seems to want

Every bit rumors of the headphone jack's imminent removal have grown, so has the pushback from a variety of sources. While there may be some small benefit to removing the iii.5mm jack, such as making the phone easier to waterproof and simplifying the internal design, there are aplenty reasons not to accept this step — even for a company similar Apple, which has a reputation for removing ports and moving to new standards before the balance of the marketplace.

The argument is unproblematic: Dumping the 3.5mm headphone jack means breaking compatibility with literally decades of earbuds and headphones, including expensive third-party sets that existing customers already use and prefer. It splits the Android and iPhone markets betwixt ii unlike headphone standards, and information technology prevents users from charging the device and listening to sound at the same time.

Apple may have bet that it could get away with the single-port standard based on overall reaction to its MacBook, which likewise offers just ane USB Type-C port, just at that place are meaning differences between the ii scenarios. First, Apple still kept the headphone jack on that arrangement, and second, the mechanics of managing a port multiplier for the single USB-C connexion are rather different in a laptop compared to a pocket.

Bluetooth earbuds are a potential workaround for this issue, but they're non a perfect fix. Not just are they somewhat more expensive, leaving Bluetooth enabled on an iDevice has a non-trivial touch on on battery life, but Bluetooth earbuds or headphones also need to be recharged on a regular ground.

Eliminating the headphone jack might requite Apple tree more room to make the next-generation iPhone slightly thinner, but could also lead to a larger camera bulge and minimal actual utility. If you use a smartphone case, there's essentially no advantage to shaving some other millimeter off the phone itself.

I've generally resisted the urge to jump on the "Apple ran out of ideas later on Steve Jobs died" bandwagon, mostly because I recollect the problems facing Apple accept nothing to do with innovation, and more to do with maturing markets and the end of conventional semiconductor scaling (both Moore's Law and Dennard scaling). But if the merely thing Apple can call back of to do for an iPhone 7 is remove a port that nearly everyone prefers to proceed, the company is making a significant mistake. While I tend to use Bluetooth earbuds myself, I see no value in removing a ubiquitous jack that helps guarantee universal compatibility with everything from loftier-terminate cans to a pair of simple earbuds you lot can pick up in a compression. No ane wants to carry an adapter to provide basic functionality that was integrated into previous devices, and if that's the "improvement" Apple is going to pb with this generation, information technology may drive people away from upgrading this cycle.