Why Would Apple Drop the Headphone Jack from New iPhone?

Apple has a history of making their own rules rather than following consumer expectations. In most industries — especially high-overhead ones like hardware — this approach would be disastrous. In spite of this, Apple has clearly gone on to become an iconic brand, dominating the mobile marketplace and supporting the premier platform for mobile app developers.

This trend of breaking the rules seems to be continuing full-steam ahead, if a new set of leaked photos, allegedly from Apple’s design team, have anything to say about it. The iPhone app development community has been in a state of unrest about proposed changes to the product line for the past year, and the new photos seem to confirm some of the rumors about Apple’s direction for the next generation of mobile phones, tablets, and laptops.

The big change everyone is buzzing about is, of course, the notable absence of a headphone jack in the new iPhone. (Again, this isn’t confirmed at the time of this writing — just a strong rumor.) The move to wireless headphones is highly contested, but from the perspective of Apple it may be inevitable. While it may anger users, it has the potential to grant longer shelf-life to their devices in the long run. In two years, a headphone jack could look as dated as a floppy drive. For obvious reasons, no hardware company wants to be associated with outdated technology. While many Dallas iPhone app developers may disagree with the tactic, it’s easy to see how the company could justify such a major change — in spite of consumer disagreement.

Losing the headphone jack isn’t the only change rumored to be coming for Mac products. A non-magnetic power supply, OLED touchpad and USB-C ports have all been proposed as possibilities for the next MacBook.

In the long term, Apple is sure to maintain its marketshare among devoted mobile app users. In the short term, get ready to buy some adaptors.