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Apple made the right move
Everyone is wailing about the loss of the headphone jack, but after thinking about it for a few days, I'm convinced Apple did the right thing.
First of all, iOS music makers are a tiny fraction of Apple's customer base. I'd be surprised if we're more than a tenth of one percent. Most people play games. And make phone calls. And take pictures. They tweet and Facebook. There are a hundreds of things that they do that are more common than creating music.
The iPhone and iPad are technological marvels, possible only because of the massive sales. All the R&D that goes into creating these gadgets, the chip design, the fabrication -- crazy expensive to get the pipeline going, so it only works if there's a huge market. If Apple let the interests of .0001% of their customers dictate their design decisions, they'd never be able to do anything new, the size of the market would shrink, and then they couldn't build anything.
Remember the floppy drive? Gone, in a much criticized move by Apple; turns out, it was a good thing. DVD drive? Gone too, and almost no one misses it. They never had BlueRay or HD-DVD, and that turned out to be the right move. There's probably someone somewhere, with a stack of VHS tapes -- and Apple doesn't care about them either.
Remember the switch from 30-pin to Lightning, and all your dongles stopped working? Thanks to Lightning, you can get more power in and out, much higher data rates, and a connector that fails less (yes, the cables fail, but not the connector -- when the connector breaks, you're really hosed). You can stream audio out over Lightning to your desktop using software. Yes, the switch was annoying, but it was still the right thing to do.
Here on the Audiobus forums, I'm sure we all remember to move from iOS 7 to iOS 8, and the introduction of IAA. If you were here then, you were probably very upset. And if you're here now, you got over it.
If you really need a 3.5mm jack, you still have options. There's a little adapter that plugs into the Lightning port. You can plug in high quality A-to-D boxes from FocusRite, Line6, Apogee; all of these will sound better than a built-in jack.
Personally, I use Bluetooth or the Lightning connector when I jump in the car. I use music IO to connect to my desktop. I use a FocusRite dock when I'm making music on the iPad. And if I'm just listening to music from my phone, wireless earbuds seems like a pretty good solution to me.
From a manufacturing perspective, the headphone jack has been a dead port walking. The days were numbered, and it was going to get killed off at some point. The maximize reliability, and minimize cost, you want to eliminate any openings in a device -- that's why Apple has gone for sealed batteries, no flash ports, and so on. In my real life, I work with a lot of electronics design folks -- across the board, the reaction to this is "it's about damn time."
Any time anything changes in iOS land, there's screaming. People say that they're leaving, and never coming back. And then they're back a week later. I see the lack of a headphone jack in the same way that I see the missing 5-pin MIDI port; it would be cool to have, but it just doesn't make sense for a device that's going to get sold to a billion people around the world. Welcome to the future, so sorry it isn't exactly the same as the past....
Comments
I agree. As someone who buys iOS devices almost exclusively for the purpose of making music, I can't see many ways it would negatively effect me.
After pondering it for a few days, I would agree. Using the headphone jack when making music always felt like a hack to me anyway. I'll get a proper mobile interface for my phone, and I already have Apogee Duet for the desk.
Im Not so sure about that,
Following your arguments I need that cpu and gpu to display 400 flying monkeys and to look at pictures of my neighbors cutting their toenails.
Ppl keep comparing the removal of the headphone out to other stuff Apple removed over the years like scsi or disk drives or flash.
I absolutely don't think so, those things sucked, what exactly sucks about a headphone output that just works without further ado?
It's a solution for problems nobody has, I mean come on, how often did you drop your phone in the loo?
They wanted a waterproof camera, and sell more substandard headphones, that's all.
Right on the money. I will certainly miss the jack when they remove it from the iPad, but it makes a lot of sense in the bigger context (i.e. beyond our tiny navelgazing community of iOS musicians).
And as I said in another thread... there is nothing we can do about it, so it's better to focus on the positive side of this move: it will motivate headphone and speaker manufacturers to sort their shizzle out and make sure that wireless connectivity becomes as seamless and painless as a wired connection.
Did this need a new discussion? Have we not been discussing it elsewhere?
I disagree. Apple has taken an open standard, that is cheap and consumer friendly, and is now bullying consumers to now only purchase Apple licensed ear buds. Not because it's better (it currently isn't). Not because it's easier (it's far from that).
Their "technology-forward" argument is flawed because we could always use blue tooth for earbuds. Apple is now forcing us to use their technology because they own the largest wireless headset company in the world and will take a cut of licensing fees from every manufacturer that builds earbuds to their standard. This is going drive up the price of ear buds and restrict user's choice.
It's a tone deaf, business-driven decision that is not consumer friendly because it raises prices and restricts choice.
If the output quality of the iPhone headphone jack was even remotely comparable to say the cheap Behringer UCA-202 I would be upset because every time I jack in the phones into the built-in headphone jack after a session with the UCA-202(or NuForce uDAC-2 for that matter) It feels like the headphones are 'broken' or seriously damaged...
I'll embrace all the advances in audio-quality that the external devices will bring along with open arms!
Removing the floppy drive when they did was not 'a good thing'. It was too soon and a lot of folk, including myself ditched the Mac and moved over to Windows PC's - which as well as not leaving us in the lurch for the sake of fashion, had the bonus of being a lot cheaper. As for the DVD/CD drive - I'm guessing that those who have had to buy external drives would not agree.
I find it particularly annoying the read these sensible comments in this forum for IOS musicians. I feel I have the right to rant over Apple making my gear obsolete, and thus making my life miserable.
Wonder when Apple will ditch the lightning port?
They'll just make it slightly smaller so you have to buy everything again.
Well, that's the bit that stinks about the move: they should have gone for USB-C or something else that is not owned and patented by Apple Corp.
These three minutes with Steve Jobs are to the point:
No it's total bs. Steve is dead and can't comment on anything.
I will say that I have a perfectly good iPod touch 4 that I can no longer use for music on the go as the headphone port is busted. This is apparently not an uncommon occurrence. Presumably the lightning port is more robust, so at a minimum it should hopefully reduce these types of mechanical failures.
Awesome post, Patrick. The only thing that got my dander up was the "technological marvels" bit, as I think Apple sometimes gets too much credit for 'marvelous' inventions. In my view, Apple's greatest gift is its ability to take existing technologies and improve their form and function.
I see this as a blessing and a curse. A curse for all the obvious reasons stated by others here that I won't rehash. A blessing because Apple will use the available space to pack newer technology into our devices.
I think it boils down to greater good. People want the latest tech, and people want their devices to be thinner and lighter. Unfortunately, this does not always reconcile with the wants and needs of musicians and music lovers.
Agreed...It's happened, it's real and the future is still bright....also I noticed a Cubasis AU preset bug seems to have been fixed with iOS10 GM....so someone at the fruit company is still looking out for us
I find the phrase packages of emphasis very interesting there. Not making any aspersions or conclusions, just a small lightbulb for me...
Totaly, once I started tinkering with audio interfaces like the UCA-202 (and especially the Roland Duo Capture) I couldn't believe just how bad the headphone jack was. My ten year old Sony Walkman mp3 player actually sounds better. The applejack really was holding back a lot of my mixes, particularly because i was already compromised by somewhat noisy environments. Anyway, I look forward to seeing just how small/awesome lightning adapters can get once there is just a bit more demand for them.
I agree with all of the OP.
Bluetooth audio is tolerable for me, but I really can tell the difference with a wire.
Good point, though it makes me sad that music fans having been listening to such low quality audio all this time.
I've added my two cents to another thread already, but I'll add it here as well becasue the op is absolutely right. Make no mistake, this is ultimately a good thing. I don't expect apple to cater to the .0001 percent or whatever we think we are, and I do trust them. They haven't really let me down yet. The lightening switch was a tough one, but a few new cables with new connectors, and I was back up and running. But it's this change, now my apogee jam is not something I can use on my iPhone anymore. And I love the portability of that little device. It's been really life changing for me, so the fact that this change makes that device incompatible absolutely sucks. Being pissed about losing a piece of loved hardware and supporting apple for pushing technology to new places aren't mutually exclusive thoughts. They may conflict with each other, but I definitely feel both right now. Ultimately, it's a good thing for technology, or at least I believe it is. But in the short term, it sucks for me personally. I did want a 7, but I'm going to stick with a 6s Plus just to stay in my comfort zone for now. Doesn't mean I'm shaking an angry fist at Apple. Doesn't mean I'm pumped about getting last years model iPhone. Just is what it is.
I have the One and the Duet and highly recommend both. Worth every dollar.
The good thing is that the 16GB models of the old 6S/6S+ are being replaced with a 32GB version for the same price.
Even though I'm semi-dedicated hobby-photographer I'm not fully convinced about the dual-lens setup so the 'regular' 7 might be more in my ballpark and there is no way I'll 'pre-order' this time. I need to check out all the colours out in person and 'feel them' before I take the eventual plunge...
My iPad Air 2 is still my 'main' noisemaker
@SecretBaseDesign
"First of all, iOS music makers are a tiny fraction of Apple's customer base. I'd be surprised if we're more than a tenth of one percent. Most people play games. And make phone calls. And take pictures. They tweet and Facebook. There are a hundreds of things that they do that are more common than creating music."
This is exactly why it doesn't make sense to me. As I said in another status somewhere, you're gonna have people using a $700 phone with $150 AirPods listening to compressed audio from YouTube videos, Snapchat and Facebook. If their focus was on people who need high spec audio performance this might actually make more sense? But they're putting a lot of power and technology in the hands of people who - by and large - will not really appreciate the difference (except to their wallets) while the people who are actually the ones pushing this technology to its very limits are the ones getting overlooked.
Maybe there will be a time when this isn't the case, but I can't imagine a simpler scenario than hooking your phone into the aux socket of a mixing desk, or hi-fi, or car stereo. Apple might like to think that their devices are status symbols but I know plenty of people who drive in cars that cost less than their phones (that includes me), and they prrrobably don't have Bluetooth audio.
I dunno. It just seems bizarre to me. From a practical design perspective it just seems wonky. AirPods out of charge? Phone battery low? Want to listen to music in private? Connect a dual lightning adaptor to your phone. Connect a minijack dongle to that. Connect your headphones to that. Then connect your charger. Like what? Your brand new sleek, thin iPhone 7 is gonna look pretty dumb with all that stuff hanging off it.
And can we take a moment to acknowledge how daft it is to ditch the headphone jack to make the phone thinner..and then make one corner of the phone thicker by approximately the same amount to make room for the dual camera protrusion?
Yeah I dunno. I mean I'm not massively put out by it. For a start I probably won't get a 7. And I'll keep using my Air 2 for music until Apple kill it with an OS update. But until I'm convinced otherwise, I maintain that this is just daft. And over-engineered. And - call me cynical - yet another way to tie iPhone users in to expensive peripherals rather than adopting standards that have served us all perfectly well for years.
These are first world problems, for sure.
Perhaps it is a good time to visit/revisit Louis CK's "Everything is amazing, nobody is happy" video circa 2008. I encourage everyone to watch/rewatch it and think about it in the context of being able to make music that moves people with a device in the palm of your hand.
Apologies if I'm stirring things up again -- it just feels like a fire hose of "the sky is falling," and I went on a bit of a rant this morning. The class I'm teaching this semester covers a lot of CPU design issues, and we spent a few minutes talking about the iPhone 7, so I'm a bit wound up.
There's a quote from Wayne Gretzky -- "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." Everything is going to be wireless; it's not a matter of "if" but of "when." Apple has decided to skate really hard towards that goal. Their success is because they've done this again and again over the years. Sometimes they're wrong, but the rest of the time they're right.
We could have had so much fun with a battery of idevices and link enabled software plugged into a mixer, just plug it in and go, but no slow Bluetooth and 3 million adapters are a thing now.
I need more steroid gum for this brave new world.
I disagree. It's a high handed gamble which may (or may not) pay off. I certainly won't be seduced into thinking it's the 'way forward' just because Apple are trying to tell us that.
So who designed the EarPods, because if they are like the normal pair, in shape, they fall out of my ears from time to time, I don't lose them because they have that obsolete thing called a wire that stops that happening, but yes the future is wireless.
Sorry but no, I disagree. Woz disagrees too and so do many many others. We'll see how this pans out.