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No 3.5mm jack goes back for years. It was only around the time of the iPhone 3G that it was standard in smartphones (I'm not saying that Apple caused it to become standard, it's just it that time frame). Earlier models of phones either didn't have one, or you needed an adapter. I think the first Android phone required an adapter.

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I think that's partly because the idea of using your phone as an actual music player also happened to take off around the same time.

I remember when phones had the smaller version, but it was used primarily for headsets.

I fondly remember the Sony Ericsson Walkman series, which were phones intended to be one's personal music player. And they had Sony Ericsson's thick, wide, proprietary connectors. It was such an annoyance having to carry those earphones just for the phone, or when the included earphones (with the proprietary connectors) broke down and you couldn't just use another pair of earphones.

A little while later, someone released an adapter, and that lessened the annoyance.

But later phones that had 3.5mm (or 2.5mm) in-built were definitely better.

Yep, 2.5mm was the standard on phones that had a jack. There were also phones that used an adapter that went into the micro USB (or was it mini USB) port.

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