Headphone jacks are Not the new floppy drive
blog.greggant.com
blog.greggant.com
If manufacturers are going to phase out barrel connectors for audio, they should do two things:
1) Use a single universal port standard, like USB Type C
2) Provide TWO of these ports. I want to charge my phone while playing music.
I know its unlikely, but I would rather Apple switch from lightening to USB Type C if they are going to abandon the 3.5mm port.
It's like making an electric guitar without a 1/4" jack... sure, you can, but you will be unable to tap into the world of effects pedals, amplifiers, pre-amps, and the rest of the guitar gear eco-system.
one can adjunct a digital control-plus-data port, to sort of upgrade SPDIF (the pro-standard was always AES-EBU anyway) but ditching analog-audio outputs and pushing folks onto ridiculously limited consumer audio "dacs on the phones" headphones and boomboxes is a step BACKwards for those producing content, which should be more and more people not less. Apple has been indicated already what it thinks "quality audio gear" amounts to with it's Beats purchase. It speaks volumes about Apple's lack of commitment to professional audio and standards that they are moving away from being the company that provided the bedrock for DAW and other audio software innovation. It's a pity. We shall go elsewhere.
Usb-c is more likely going to offer what people don't really need for a price that they are very unlikely to agree spending.
Plus, if I sum up all of the euros I've spent on headsets... Well, a large part of that sum has been spent on sub-10 € headset.
Good luck making a good profit margin on that market segment.
When your household uses exclusively devices that are powered by USB Type C, there is an impressive collective synergistic convenience that results. All of our tablets, phones, and laptops use Type C. Any of the power supplies for any of our devices can, in a pinch, be used to provide power to any other.
We can carry tiny trickle chargers when we're going to be by an outlet all the time, or a heavier rapid charger otherwise.
We can power any of our devices directly from any other device.
Further, we can use the same thumb drive on any device, no OTG adapter or usb size adapter needed. Several of our devices support slimport, so one set of high end cables can be used for video, data transfers, or power transfers.
For those that love convenience, USB Type C is great. And it gets even better the more devices you have switched over - when you can share cables, power supplies, monitors, and thumb drives between all of your devices so easily.
Apparently I'm one of the few that likes the idea of Apple's next notebook having exclusively Type C ports.
Floppy disk died due to better and more capacity substitute.
Bluetooth headset is an alternative to wired headphones.