I still have a working iPod Classic with its 30 or so gigabytes of space, and that goofy circle control pad on the front. I've been buying Apple products for listening to music for a long time. My current device is an iPhone 5. Even that's getting pretty old. The planned obsolescence is hitting it. The battery dies really fast. And the fast processor of a few years ago doesn't seem fast enough for the applications we can get now. Oh and the screen is starting to separate from the rest of the phone. But it still works. And I depend on it for my 1 hour commute now. I listen to audio books using Audible.
My car is a 2009 vehicle. It has a USB port, but the stereo doesn't have any updated software to understand how to handle a phone. In fact, my iPod Classic works with it... but none of the rest of my Apple products have worked with it. So to use my car stereo for listening to books (which requires the smart phone app), I'm using the auxiliary audio jack. I plug a cord in between my phone and my car. It's not as nice as having the USB connection where controls on my steering wheel can control the audio, but it's leaps and bounds better than trying to listen to anything on the phone's speaker's while driving a car with all the road noise.
So knowing that my phone is dying, and that I have grown to love listening to audio books on my commute to and from work, I was pretty excited when Apple announced the iPhone 7. I've liked my Apple phones. I was really excited that the base model was going to have 32 gigabytes of memory instead of 16... that's a lot more music I can store on the device and I can keep more than a book or two handy. I can also keep more game apps on there at once. And with the improved processor, the games I play now should run smoother. I was excited. Past tense.
There were rumors of the iPhone 7 not having a headphone jack... that 3.5mm jack that has been part of audio devices for so long. Everyone's headphones use that jack. Some people spend a lot of money on those headphones. And I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who depend on it to use it in the car. Dropping the headphone jack is basically Apple telling a large portion of its customers that they don't care about those customers anymore in a very impolite profanity riddled way.
Now you might be aware that apparently there's an adapter that will allow a normal 3.5mm headphone jack to plug into the lightning port on the iPhone, and apparently it's going to come with the phone for no additional cost. Great. That helps a little. Except it doesn't provide an audio port AND a lightning port at the end of the adapter. It just provides the headphone port. Which means that if I want to plug my new phone in to my car, I can't also be charging the phone at the same time.
The new battery will probably last longer than my current one, so it'll probably last through the commute, but what about battery intensive operations like using the map app for directions? The phone is trying real hard to stay connected to cell towers to keep track of you, and it burns through battery fast. So if I'm using that for directions, I can either choose to have it be audible over my car's stereo, and risk running out of power, OR I can keep the phone powered, and try to listen on the tiny speakers that don't really have the power to overcome the car's engine noise and road noise.
To me, this change is the result of some moron at Apple who might describe him/herself as visionary or progressive convincing everyone else there that this is a good idea because it's cool, and not because it's actually better for customers. As I typed that, I thought of the more likely scenario: some selfish greedy jerk at Apple who might describe themselves as a savvy business person decided that Apple had the sway with potential customers to force people to make accommodations and do whatever Apple tells them to do. They probably think that people will willingly spend the $160 for the pair of blue tooth headphones, and replace all the headphones they already spent money on. And Apple can probably get a bunch more money from third party companies that want to make headphones that will work with the iPhone. It's about money.
And while we're on the topic of those stupid wireless earbuds (what are they called? Air Pods?) that cost $160... Instead of having one item that doesn't require charging, I'd have three items (two ear buds, and a charger I'd have to take with me). And those ear buds are probably stupidly easy to lose. That's an expensive thing to lose.
So now customers are faced with a choice of what to do...
- Stick with their current phone and hope it'll hold out a while longer.
- Switch to Android (which might be my best option right now).
- Or buy the new iPhone 7 and accept the punishment Apple is dishing out.
I find myself wondering if Apple will lose money on this. I mean... I want to support Apple for how they stood up to the government on that privacy issue, but this is offensive. And I think I want them to lose money, hoping that my point of view on the headphone jack is the popular one. I want Apple to learn that it's important to keep customers happy. I mean... how hard would it have been to offer two options? One with a headphone jack, and one without? The iPhone 7a (for "audio") and iPhone 7?
Message to Apple: please offer a model with the headphone jack separate from the lightning port.
