iPhone 7: Why there's no 3.5mm headphone jack? Courage!

Gone are the days of ‘one more thing’ as the Apple event unfolded another moment that people are going to remember for a very long time (cue massive sigh and eye roll). Phil Schiller’s big explanation for the removal of 3.5mm analog audio jack came down to one word: Courage. This explains two things – Apple is no more the company we knew for its presentations, and secondly it is confident about its innovation or shall we say the herd mentality? Apple has been courageous on several occasions, when it stood against the FBI, when it stood for gay rights and gender equality, and there are numerous other occasions, but not for the headphone jack. It’s a mere design/feature change that the company wants to opt for. That’s one reason why it is being mocked. Look at some of these tweets. https://twitter.com/zackwhittaker/status/773716578038931456 https://twitter.com/stshank/status/773593854368845824 https://twitter.com/colinlecher/status/773590474888183808 Well, and there are many more fun and witty tweets out there mocking Apple. However, there’s another side to this. Whether we love it or hate it, Apple has emerged pretty confident over the years. It’s doubtful whether Steve Jobs would have given the adapter in the box for free, but there’s one thing he pretty much believed, so has the Apple philosophy been since then, customers don’t know what they want. This move simply signifies how Apple still holds on to this. Moreover, it has emerged as a confident company, that knows consumer psyche well by now. Apple knows that it has the power to launch a feature, and make it a default industry standard. For instance, fingerprint scanner. Isn’t it a standard feature, these days? https://twitter.com/LeEcoIndia/status/773540995824775168 https://twitter.com/oneplus/status/773590144234377216 So, yes, it takes courage to build a feature, and stand by it. As we have also seen in case of Flash. Apple knows well that the company is valued  by many, and not just its friends but also foes. You see manufactures comparing their products to Apple’s devices, even as they launch a brand new product. They believe Apple is a benchmark of sort, or at least that’s exactly how it looks. In the past we’ve seen Moto, LeEco and even Oppo give a miss to the 3.5mm jack, but the world wasn’t up with arms against it. Smartwatches have been there for a long time as product category. But, no one really cared about it going mainstream until Apple announced the Watch. In fact, just the circulating rumours compelled many, including arch-rival Apple to launch its device. Courage may not be the best word to describe the features, but there is no denying that Apple has the capability to decide tech trends.