[vantt1]

Let's see what they have to offer in their new Beats Pro. Any time now! It'd better be something revolutionary and innovative.
 

 

[Redcarmoose]

I just read the Forbs artical about Apple doing away with the headphone jack in favor of lighting headphones only.

Forbs as a publication seems to have lowered itself to National Enquirer level of reporting with pure sensationalism just to get readers.

People love to complain about any new changes when most changes have been beneficial over all. Anyone with iPhones or an iPod knows how those 30 pin connectors broke. The lightning connector really seems nice. If Apple does away with the TRS mini- jack they would lose business so I speculate it will not happen.

 

[whatisjitter]

Quote from the thread "Pointless Thread Titled "Apple to Abandon Headphone Jack?" to Stay Open?"
Thanks for locking it by the way, it really was pointless!
 
by Currawong
Quote:

  *sigh*
 
The title is (after they modified it, as it was originally a false statement):
 

"Apple To Abandon Headphone Jack?"

 
This is because Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies.
 
This is how news services trick you with headlines. For the TLDR people out there: The answer is "no". 

 
I am not so sure about that. If it is done right Apple could be the big winner of the whole thing since they earn money from every single MFi headphone sold. Living currently in the US I totally see this working because people will just believe that the new lightning standard is a great Apple invention. There are going to be the earbuds shipped with the iPhone so around 60% of the customers won't care anyways because earbuds are good enough for them. Furthermore, most people around me haven't invested more than $60 in headphones so compared to the $800 for a new phone it is going to be easy to acquire new headphones.
 
In terms of design the 3.5mm headphonejack is a bottleneck when it comes to the slimness of a device. I don't really think you can below 6mm total thickness if you have such a plug and I totally see Apple trying to make their iPhone thinner than this.
 
It's still a rumor but to me it makes a lot of sense.

 

[vantt1]

I just read the Forbs artical about Apple doing away with the headphone jack in favor of lighting headphones only.

Forbs as a publication seems to have lowered itself to National Enquirer level of reporting with pure sensationalism just to get readers.

People love to complain about any new changes when most changes have been beneficial over all. Anyone with iPhones or an iPod knows how those 30 pin connectors broke. The lightning connector really seems nice. If Apple does away with the TRS mini- jack they would lose business so I speculate it will not happen.

 

Yep.
 

Originally posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif *sigh*
 
The title is (after they modified it, as it was originally a false statement):
 

"Apple To Abandon Headphone Jack?"

 
This is because Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies.
 
This is how news services trick you with headlines. For the TLDR people out there: The answer is "no". 

 

 

[Currawong]

  It's still a rumor but to me it makes a lot of sense.

 
From the Wiki I linked to (though this quote was referring to a Techcrunch article):
 

 This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no". The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably ********, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.

 
Plus what @Redcarmoose said.
 
Just remember that, for the purposes of any news service, Apple only exists to generate headlines to sell newspapers or ads. That is why, when Apple hasn't done anything newsworthy for a while, they start posting negative stuff about Apple, with quotes from brain-dead analysts or "market share" statistics, or any comparison with any other brand.

 

[eugenius]

Next week, Apple to abandon Ethernet and/or USB.

 

[vantt1]

Substituting it with Thunderbolt

 

[whatisjitter]

  Next week, Apple to abandon Ethernet and/or USB.

 
"The new models omit Ethernet and FireWire 800 ports, though Apple offers Thunderbolt adapters for both interfaces."
 
Ethernet is gone since mid 2012. I think they would love to get rid of USB and replace it with thunderbolt - for the MFi reasons.
 
edit: I am talking about the MacBooks above
 

  Substituting it with Thunderbolt

 

[kurochin]

The new cylindrical/dustbin styled Mac Pro models still come with ethernet ports, though. They come with two, in fact.

 

[thatBeatsguy]

The new cylindrical/dustbin styled Mac Pro models still come with ethernet ports, though. They come with two, in fact.

Not only that, they support Gigabit Ethernet too.
They also come with USB 3.0 ports, IIRC.

 

[Silent Xaxal]

   
I am not so sure about that. If it is done right Apple could be the big winner of the whole thing since they earn money from every single MFi headphone sold. Living currently in the US I totally see this working because people will just believe that the new lightning standard is a great Apple invention. There are going to be the earbuds shipped with the iPhone so around 60% of the customers won't care anyways because earbuds are good enough for them. Furthermore, most people around me haven't invested more than $60 in headphones so compared to the $800 for a new phone it is going to be easy to acquire new headphones.
 
In terms of design the 3.5mm headphonejack is a bottleneck when it comes to the slimness of a device. I don't really think you can below 6mm total thickness if you have such a plug and I totally see Apple trying to make their iPhone thinner than this.
 
It's still a rumor but to me it makes a lot of sense.

 
For this to work, they'd need to start licensing out Lightning to other companies. Your analysis fails to take into consideration that Apple hasn't seen as much userbase growth as say Windows Phone (The numbers will surprise you) or Android.
 
If anything, this move could eventually end up being similar to when Sony and Samsung were running proprietary standards for their devices.

 

[Redcarmoose]

For this to work, they'd need to start licensing out Lightning to other companies. Your analysis fails to take into consideration that Apple hasn't seen as much userbase growth as say Windows Phone (The numbers will surprise you) or Android.

If anything, this move could eventually end up being similar to when Sony and Samsung were running proprietary standards for their devices.

Exactly, it is the same story when Apple and Microsoft first went into war. The Microsoft programs were made by everyone and Apple had a hand full.

 

[thievesarmy]

   
For this to work, they'd need to start licensing out Lightning to other companies. Your analysis fails to take into consideration that Apple hasn't seen as much userbase growth as say Windows Phone (The numbers will surprise you) or Android.
 
If anything, this move could eventually end up being similar to when Sony and Samsung were running proprietary standards for their devices.

 
their userbase / market share growth isn't huge, BUT I believe they make FAR more profit on what share they do have than the other companies do. Android is free for device makers... Not sure about Windows mobile.
 
That said, Apple DOES need to increase their market share, and this Beats deal could be a huge move towards that. If they start creating synergy in the products, or having features & functionality exclusive to iOS / Beats, all of a sudden all the people that have or had Beats headphones are going to want to take full advantage of them, and could be tempted to get an iPhone. Much in the same way that the original iPod was essentially a trojan horse for Windows users to fall in love with an Apple product at an affordable price-point, and from there transition into the full Apple ecosystem with a Mac computer, Apple TV, iPad or what have you. Beats headphones could serve the same purpose now.

 

[thievesarmy]

The new cylindrical/dustbin styled Mac Pro models still come with ethernet ports, though. They come with two, in fact.

don't forget the iMac.

 

[Silent Xaxal]

   
their userbase / market share growth isn't huge, BUT I believe they make FAR more profit on what share they do have than the other companies do. Android is free for device makers... Not sure about Windows mobile.
 
That said, Apple DOES need to increase their market share, and this Beats deal could be a huge move towards that. If they start creating synergy in the products, or having features & functionality exclusive to iOS / Beats, all of a sudden all the people that have or had Beats headphones are going to want to take full advantage of them, and could be tempted to get an iPhone. Much in the same way that the original iPod was essentially a trojan horse for Windows users to fall in love with an Apple product at an affordable price-point, and from there transition into the full Apple ecosystem with a Mac computer, Apple TV, iPad or what have you. Beats headphones could serve the same purpose now.

 
It was stated by a number of individuals that they don't make too much per sale of Iphones/Ipads/Macs. Pretty much, it's when people start getting enveloped in the ecosystem where profit starts getting made. Which leads to the problem with the Beats acquisition, because, admittedly, audio currently isn't a large concern for most individuals. The streaming service may actually be a stronger gateway drug for the kind of situation you're postulating, but even then, Apple isn't in the strong position it had in the mid-late 2000s. This now more of an uphill battle if anything and forcing people onto a singular standard could do them more harm than good, though what would do more harm would be if they introduced lightning as the be-all end-all peripheral standard, then suddenly go back on their word and bring back more universal formats (Steve Jobs would never do this, but I honestly think that Tim Cook would be way too prone to doing this.)