Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis and his associates have predicted in a recent research note that the new iPhones launching later this year may not come bundled with the Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter, MacRumors is reporting. “We currently model no dongle this year,” the analysts noted.
It seems however that Barclays analysts are only guessing that the adapter may no longer be bundled with 2018 iPhones, as they say it may take a couple more months to find out for certain. The investment bank has also lowered its quarterly and yearly revenue guidance for Cirrus Logic by up to 5%, Apple’s main supplier of audio-related components inside of the adapter.
Barclays does have some credibility in this area, as last year, the investment bank accurately predicted that Apple would continue to include the adapter in the box alongside the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. The analysts routinely visit with Apple’s supply chain partners in Asia to gather information like this.
“We believe it stays this year but goes away at some point, potentially in the 2018 model,” the analysts said back in April 2017.
Although the dongle has helped ease the transition to elimination of the headphone jack since the iPhone 7’s debut, Apple may no longer feel the need to bundle it as AirPods and other wireless headphone become more widespread.
Should Apple include the Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter with this year’s iPhones?
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
If they wanted their products be more consistent they’d return it to the phones. There’s a reason there are headphones jacks on the latest iPad, MacBook, MacBook Pro etc.
All the products you mentioned haven’t received significant upgrade in a few years.
iPhone 7 wasn’t a significant upgrade but they made the effort to remove the jack. They could have done the same with the new iPad, MacBook, MacBook Pro etc., but didn’t.
Really, the MacBook Pro has not changed generation since 2016, when it was unveiled. It only had CPU and RAM upgrades, which doesn’t qualify as a new generation like iPhone upgrades do. Additionally, Apple removed the Jack from the 7 because it had a viable alternative for most iPhone users–the AirPods or any headphones with the W1/W2 chip.
There is no viable alternative for the Jack on MacBook Pro, because of how Pros uses it. But even then, Apple removed the Optical output functionality of the jack with the Touch Bar generation, and the arrangement on the motherboard changed so that it’s very easy to remove in the future.
Also, space is not as much of an issue for the Jack on bigger hardware.
Apple’s vision is to have the iPhone totally wireless–I do not know if that vision applies to the Mac and iPads though.
There have been lots of new models of MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iPads and iPad Pros since the iPhone 7, including the redesigned MacBook Pro with Touch Strip that got rid of almost all the ports with the exception of USB-C and HEADPHONE JACK – not sure why you don’t consider MacBook Pro with Touch Strip a significant enough redesign for them to have been able to remove the jack. They had no problem removing the SD card reader, MagSafe 2 charging port, HDMI port, Thunderbolt 2 ports and standard USB ports. For the headphone jack to have survived all that it must have been pretty darn important. They could have included a dongle – like they expect everyone to use to get the other old ports back – but they didn’t. They included an actual headphone jack right on the machine – no dongle required.
Dude, I literally said the MacBook Pro TouchBar hasn’t changed since it was released! The Touch Bar is the current generation
What’s your point? It came out after the iPhone 7.
And like I said, what’s important for the Mac is not necessarily important for the iPhone.
You just repeated everything I said.
“There is no viable alternative for the Jack on MacBook Pro, because of how Pros uses it” / “Apple’s vision is to have the iPhone totally wireless–I do not know if that vision applies to the Mac and iPads though.”
If true, it’s only to increase Apple’s profit margin…don’t be so gullible. The iPhone X is already overpriced as analysts have demonstrated.
You are bang on. Apple needs to drop the price of the phone, Samsung won’t drop the price of the screen, so where else can they cheap out. This is an easy choice.
Better include Bluetooth ones. I don’t care if they’re normal quality and AirPods would be the premium one. But including AirPods would increase usage and make AirPods the norm. Maybe pay an extra 100 when you buy an iPhone and they throw in the AirPods. Come on Apple
I haven’t used a headphone jack in the last 5 years, its all been bluetooth.