Apple may cull the 3.5 mm headphone jack with the iPhone 7: Report

It’s been a topic of debate before the launch of the Apple iPhone 6 and now rumours have surfaced online once again. Apple is reportedly skipping the 3.5 mm headphone jack on its upcoming iPhone 7, which is the worldwide standard of how music is delivered through a standard pair of headphones.

A Chinese website  reports it has sources who claim that Apple may skip its 3.5 mm headphone jack and use the current lightning port for digital audio and an adapter for analogue audio. The news apparently comes from a reliable source and claims that Apple is doing the same for one and one reason only, making the smartphone slimmer.

While making slimmer devices is priority when it comes to Apple design, things got out of hand when users of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus began reporting ‘ bendgate ’. The issue had to do with a design defect where in the gaps for the volume buttons were too large making it the structural weak point, leading to the smartphone bending in pockets.

Apple’s goal according to the leak is to make the upcoming iPhone 7 slimmer by 1 millimetre, which means that it could either chuck the 3.5 mm jack out of the design or go ahead with another weak point in the structure.

At the announcement of the iPhone 6s, Apple made itself pretty clear that it has used a sturdier version of aluminium to avoid bending complaints. Despite everything, the iPhone 6s ended up growing thicker, but that was primarily due to an extra layer with the all-new 3D Touch display.

While there are manufacturers such as Philips who are currently selling headphones with a lightning port at the end, the cables used for the same are pretty thick and do not bend easily which can get cumbersome for users.

If Apple does go ahead with the same (even though the chances of it are pretty slim) headphone manufacturers will have to get back to their drawing boards to make use of the lightning plug. Also owners of the new lightning port enabled headsets will not be able to plug into anything else (without an adapter). Yes, Apple currently does make a whole lot of money from its lightning connector. And routing audio for headphones through the same will force many more OEMs to pay licensing fees in order to use its patented port.