So this was inevitable: the Samsung Galaxy S8 rumor mill is in full swing, and one of the reports suggests that Samsung will be removing the headphone jack from the next generation of its flagship phone, just as Apple did with the iPhone 7. (The rumors also suggest the company will go with an “all-screen” bezel-less design that hides the home button, which sounds neat and also almost exactly like the rumors about the next iPhone design. Samsung, you know?)
Anyway, the conventional wisdom is that since Apple already took the hit and removed the headphone jack, Samsung is free to do the same without suffering a similar public relations firestorm. Which is good, because the fires of the Note 7 are still burning. Here’s John Gruber:
Samsung won’t face anywhere near the amount of criticism Apple did, because Apple went first and took most of the arrows. Which, yes, took courage.
And there’s now sales data out there showing that the iPhone 7 is selling just fine, and that the lack of a headphone jack isn’t an issue for prospective buyers. So: issue resolved, right? Apple had the courage to make the move, Samsung follows, and we’re into the bold new world of digital audio.
I don’t think so — and I don’t think it’s that simple.
When I first wrote that removing the headphone jack was user-hostile and stupid, I listed several reasons: digital audio is more restrictive, wireless solutions are all pretty meh, dongles are irritating, changing established standards impacts accessibility, and fragmenting audio standards across platforms is ridiculous.
It’s been a few months of living with the iPhone 7, and every one of those things is still true. And when Samsung removes the headphone jack, it’ll be even worse for its users, because the Android / Samsung accessory ecosystem isn’t nearly as strong as the iPhone accessory ecosystem.
Basically: not having a headphone jack might not be enough to deter sales of a phone, but it’s still really annoying and requires users to spend additional money to reclaim very basic functionality from their devices. And most of that money flows back to the device vendor, effectively increasing the price of the phone. We’ve taken something simple and universal, and turned it into something complex and proprietary, for no obvious benefits. It’s a bad trade-off. It’s... user-hostile and stupid. There’s just no getting around it.
(On the flip side, the industry-wide move to USB-C high-speed interconnects on laptops is a huge push toward a simple, universal standard. It’s annoying now, but the benefits over time are obvious.)
Here’s my list of issues from June, slightly updated:
Digital audio means DRM audio and wireless headphones and speakers are fine, not great:
Apple has been way out front saying that DRM concerns are a “conspiracy theory,” but problems with DRM aren’t about good or bad intentions. Instead, they’re about requiring permission for unexpected uses, which limits your freedom around content you have rights to use and makes innovation harder unless someone pays a tax.
And the contours of that tax are now clear. If you want to plug standard audio devices into a phone without a headphone jack, you need to buy an adapter. If you want to get the best experience with a set of wired headphones, you need to buy new Lightning or USB-C headphones, which then won’t work with the vast majority of other devices. If you want a wireless experience, you have to use Bluetooth, which sucks in almost infinite ways. If you want the best Apple wireless experience, you have to buy Apple or Beats headphones with a W1 chip, which means you have exactly zero choices that aren’t made by Apple.
It’s simpler in a table, so here are some tables:
Of the four ways to connect an audio device to an iPhone, Apple collects a tax on three of them. For USB-C, you’ll end up paying a more diffuse usability tax and gain very little tangible benefit in return: Samsung’s phones were already thin (maybe too thin) and waterproof.
And if the goal is to push everyone to wireless audio in general, well, maybe that dream isn’t worth it until Bluetooth is actually better. Bluetooth 5 was just finalized yesterday, so it’s not shipping in anything, let alone phones, for months to come. Apple has delayed AirPods indefinitely, and other wireless headphones aren’t quite there yet either. You can be bold about pushing people into the future, but taking away something that works reliably in favor of a bunch of broken things isn’t bold at all. It’s just dumb.
Dongles are stupid, especially when they require other dongles: This photo of Recode editor Dan Frommer living his best #donglelife trying to charge his iPhone 7 from his MacBook while listening to a call is so silly it ended up on Reddit and got written up at BGR.
It’s just as ridiculous with a USB-C-only Android phone. And Android phones typically get worse battery life at similar battery sizes, so the charge / listen problem in particular will be exacerbated.
Ditching a deeply established standard will disproportionately impact accessibility and Making Android and iPhone headphones incompatible is arrogant and stupid: These two also go hand in hand: what kinds of audio devices should schools buy if they support iOS and Android devices? How many dongles of each kind should they stock? If you make devices for the hard of hearing, do you increase your development costs to make and support both USB-C and Lightning devices? Who do you leave behind?
All I’m saying is that the costs of removing the headphone jack are extremely clear. It’s clear who’s paying these costs (us), and it’s clear who’s collecting the payment (them). It’s not at all clear what we’re getting in return.
I laid out all these problems before Apple announced the removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7, and I don’t think the company has provided good enough answers for any of them. It certainly hasn’t provided a crystal clear statement of the value delivered in exchange for the headphone jack going away. I suspect Samsung’s lack of answers will be just as deafening.
It’s a good time to start a dongle company, though.
Comments
Agreed, 100%, and while I already don’t really consider buying or recommending Samsung crap phones to people for software reasons, now there will be a simple hardware reason to avoid them, because I would never buy, and never recommend that anyone else buy, a phone without a headphone jack, just like I wouldn’t recommend someone buy a computer without speakers or without a headphone jack, or anything else that can play audio/music.
By bofis on 12.09.16 2:20pm
So what phone do you recommend?
By shiftknob28 on 12.09.16 2:56pm
Any phone except the iPhone 7?
By Abattoir on 12.09.16 4:02pm
ZTE Axon 7 is great for customers prioritizing audio. I got one for $345 and love it. Instead of removing the jack they actually added an amplifier to it. Loud stereo speakers and quad HD display make it a multimedia dream phone.
By P.Girish on 12.09.16 4:04pm
It is so stupid to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack. Here is why:
1. Wired headphones are factually superior to bluetooth. Better sound quality, cheaper, and doesn’t require a daily charge
2. Requiring a dongle takes us back to pre-iPhone times. In fact, requiring a dongle on such an essential feature should be a sin
3. Taking away the headphone jack is a pure greed move, as blind consumers will believe they need to adapt to this technology and buy Apple or Beats wireless headphones
4. Apple has now successfully influenced other major OEMs to take it away, given they have bluetooth products to support such decision
5. It’s a myth Apple or any other manufacturer can’t incorporate more features, more battery, and still make a phone that feels great in the hands
We are at stage in phone tech where I feel manufacturers are getting incredibly lazy. Anything to push the bottom line, even if that means more compromises to the end consumer. Despite this, some like Apple and Samsung are charging prices as high as ever.
Nilay, thank you for writing this article. Very happy to see the Verge not in support of the bad idea of removing the jack.
By PhatDummy on 12.09.16 4:23pm
All at least partially true.
But what else is true is that wireless is awesome and even at the expense of those flaws you pointed out.
Try buying a wifi-less laptop or wired tv remote control.
By Omnimoak on 12.09.16 7:49pm
nah, i charge at most once a week for my bigger over ear headphones, and love them a lot in the winter time. so that one is bogus.
But i’m with him pretty much on the others.
i do agree it’s a pure greed move. Just don’t agree that it’s as inconvenient as people say it is. My headphones are 3 black friday’s old too.
By JesseDegenerate on 12.09.16 10:05pm
Yeah, I mean, sure it’s frustrating. But I’ve had Bluetooth headphones since last Christmas and tbh they’re fine… and very convenient. I don’t use them a lot though, so maybe for someone else I could see charging etc. getting annoying (even though there’s so many devices on my charger point now another one doesn’t seem like a big issue)
By kayzee on 12.12.16 6:03am
You’re comparing apples to oranges. His point was never that wireless is bad (it’s not), it’s just that wired is better. And in this instance, there’s been no significant argument showing why we can’t have both as an option, since Bluetooth headphones work on all the phones with headphones jacks already.
By wkp82 on 12.10.16 9:43am
Exactly.
By Analog Spirit 2.0 on 12.10.16 1:23pm
I know many people who haven’t used their audio jack even once. if this demographic is the majority, there is no point in keeping legacy technology around in a device whose primary function is not playing audio through analog sources.
By Vincentv on 12.12.16 6:31am
Do they use wireless? I know people that also have never used an audio jack. They also never listen to music on their phones.
By banker85 on 12.12.16 11:08am
yes, they use wireless to stream to speakers. Many people are not comfortable using headphones/iems.
By Vincentv on 12.13.16 5:43am
This comment is a little too Trumpian for my tastes:
1. State anecdote.
2. Hope that people believe the phenomenon is general because the premise of your second sentence relies on it.
3. Draw incorrect conclusion from the non-evidence presented in items 1 and 2.
By Luis_de_Camoes on 12.12.16 11:04pm
You/I don’t have enough sample data to conclude if number of people using headphones/audio jack is an anecdote or not. Apple probably has a better notion to the actual number of people dependent on this feature.
Also, there might just be an inflection in the number of people switching to wireless audio that made this decision valid through their point if view.
You’re right in saying that I am speculating but so is everybody here and also this website. This Article is an opinion piece with no real numbers to back their claim that removal of the headphone jack is customer hostile.
Samsung is clearly following suit because it made sense to them that the port had to go.
I haven’t used the port my iPhone as it can’t drive the headphones I use so it’s of no consequence to me.
By Vincentv on 12.13.16 5:50am
Are you suggesting that you don’t see people walking around with ear buds that are attached by wire to their phones? Because if you go to any college campus they will be everywhere. Also, any subway, bus, DMV, public park, gym, ski slope, etc, etc, etc.
Nilay’s point is that in his circle of friends the headphone jack is really important. You are countering this claim, not by saying that in your circle of friends it isn’t important, but by saying we don’t have enough sample data to know and so you disagree? This is not a convincing argument.
By Luis_de_Camoes on 12.13.16 9:16am
On the contrary, I have been seeing more people using wireless earphones/headphones rather than wired in gyms. I haven’t been to a college campus in years so I can’t speak to that. Most people where I work don’t listen to music at work. Some do but people who don’t use headphones are a clear majority.
It is also, safe to assume that they all own smartphones.
None of my elders (people in 50s) use headphones and are actually happy that apple chose to remove the jack. (I am quite surprised that they even thought about such things.)
Most (80%) of my peers have not used wired earphones in years.
See, I have again used anecdotal observations to bolster my claim.
My argument to your post is that nilay is not anymore credible than me in saying that the removal of the headphone jack affects consumers in a negative way because all he is saying is that it irritates him and a limited set of his peers.
His cute table that says 9$ apple tax is bulls**t. It only applies when apple does not include the adapter as a pack-in. Apple including the adapter as a pack-in and also keeping the EarPods the same cost clearly shows that whatever circuitry is needed to make audio work through the lightning port is not exactly a cost multiplier as this site keeps lamenting.
This to me seems like childish/whiny behavior where someone is simply trying to counter change not because it affects them but because they don’t have control over it.
Also just because editors is verge think that most people would appreciate a thicker/heavier phone with better battery life and headphone jack does not make it so. It is quite safe to assume that apple focus grouped and market analyzed the s**t out of it to come to a conclusion about what constitutes to a smartphone that will sell to the maximum of its potential.
By Vincentv on 12.13.16 11:04am
I also think that eventually (in 3-4 years)the term smartphone will completely lose its meaning. Wireless modem will be present in all apple devices and even watch will have standalone calling features. Are they going to put an audio jack in the watch because Nilay Patel and his friends are struck in the past? I think not. Apple is pushing for wireless audio standards with seamless roaming early-on so that the quirks and customer/market adoption will be at a point where they can pull off an eco-system like that.
The main issue with removal of the headphone jack for Nilay or other people who are crying about this is that they want to avoid eco-system lock-in above all. It is not actually about the inconvenience of losing an ubiquitous interface standard but about all the interoperability issues this will cause in future.
That is a valid issue that I can get behind trying to repel but audio port to me with all the more capable alternatives the market has to offer is anti-progress and honestly just tech sites clickbaiting as people today love technology and people have always loved controversy. So, mix them both and see the clicks pour in….
By Vincentv on 12.13.16 11:36am
Yes, I too am glad they removed the headphone jack so we can finally have Bluetooth in phones so they can wirelessly pair with devices. I can’t believe it’s taken so long to remove the shackles of the 3.5mm jack so we can finally breathe the free air of Bluetooth. Oh wait…
By graf1k on 12.11.16 5:01pm
iPhone 7 has better bluetooth range than iPhone 6S. So yeah, no need to wait, the first part of your comment is true.
Also symmetry. Form is over function when function is not used.
By Vincentv on 12.13.16 12:04pm
In fact, having a full size, regular, standard 3.5mm headphone jack was a defining feature of the original iPhone. Prior to that, phone headsets were a mess of incompatible standards.
By Grouchy Ivan on 12.11.16 6:53pm
The "blind consumer" just use the included adaptor or lighting headphones. Of the of the 6 people I know with iphone 7 1 is interested in getting new wireless headphones and they had already owned some prior to that.
The wireless headphone market had been steadily growing for years before the jack was dropped. Apple didn’t remove the jack to force people into wireless. Apple removed it to because to a growing market it’s a useless hole in the phone that could be filled with anything other than air.
By kaplag on 12.11.16 10:22pm
Yeah I heard that was a good phone. It’ll be interesting to see how different OEMs react to the removal of the headphone jack next year. I’m expecting Samsung to ditch it and then all the small OEMs to hold on to it seeing it as a chance to gain customers.
By Abattoir on 12.09.16 4:24pm
This device can not be compared to flagships like iPhone 7/Plus or SGN7 (which would be great if it was not explosive).
If Samsung will get rid of the jack, then this would mean that they can still see the trends. Despite nearly universal media outcry, iPhone 7/Plus is going to make Apple breaking another revenue record this quarter. Intel, Motorola and others also agree with Apple: jack is no more.
Apple is right, consumers have proven it. It is time for media to accept the reality and replace the short-sightedness with the vision of the future that has no jack.
By UsernameAndPassword on 12.09.16 4:27pm
Wrong.
Consumers have not proven that Apple is right. Consumers have proven that Apple’s brand recognition is off the charts.
I know multiple people who purchased an iPhone 7 not knowing a 3.5mm headphone jack wasn’t included. It should be safe to assume every flagship over $600 includes one, and not a dongle.
By PhatDummy on 12.09.16 4:33pm