I was watching that reviewer, Marcus Brownlee (I think), and he did a video which seems to think the next iPhone will be the first smartphone without a traditional headline port.

I will let that brew and let you have a think about how the heck your are supposed to hear anything, as I did when I saw the video title.(Or you could watch his vid I guess).

It has been rumoured for quite a while now actually.

f it happens then what people are talking about is:
The included headphones will plug in via the Lightning port.
There will be an adapter available to plug in existing headphones into the Lightning port.
Apple will release a high ish end pair of bluetooth headphones possibly under the Beats branding as a wireless alternative.

The idea sounds stupid when you first read it, but knowing apple!

Yeah, ya got it.

I haven't bothered with iPhone since the 3gs, I don't like this idea at all though in an empathising way to Apple owners.

I think many folk lose there Headphones when out and about, and knowing you can pop into a supermarket and pick up a new decent pair for £5-£10 is a lot better than having to get to an Apple store or distributor and pay probably about £30 to get compatible replacements.

And the idea of carrying around special adaptors to charge when listening etc... I think it will be a big mistake from the lads at Apple.

I've had iPhones since the 3GS in 2009, and if they do this, I will switch to Samsung.
The simple reason being, I do not wish to purchase extra bling to enable me to use my Bose noise cancellers that I've already shelled out loads for.

For the same reason, I'm dreading the day I need to replace the Macbook Pro, as there appears to be hardly any sockets on them, so I'd need to buy thunderbolt adapters and usb hubs etc. Messy, messy, messy, and very unapple.

Sadly it is very apple!
They have a pretty big track record with removing components / ports very early on, but this one really does surprise me if it turns out to be true.

Apple have lost their spark. I miss the old Apple.

100% about Apple, there is no benefit to the user.

What do you mean, no benefit. It will be the thinnest, lightest, fastest, bestest iPhone ever. All due to replacing the 3.5mm socket with a much inferior audio connector ....

I've used Bluetooth headphones for a while now, and wouldn't go back.

I'd never buy any media device (such as a phone, tablet, etc) that doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone out socket. The alternative would to be to shell out money on an adapter that would let you do what you should be able to do without one?

I don't really care if devices get 0.2mm thinner than they currently are. I care about functionality.

Nothing wrong with choice though. If I wanted the iPhone 7, I don't want to have to buy an expensive adaptor to be able to use any headphones I want, including the nice pair I already have.

People were pee'd off by having to use a crappy adaptor with the phones of old, some using 2.5mm, some using an entirely proprietary interface, and there were some like the original iPhone that used 3.5mm but bodged it such that you needed a special adaptor to use other headphones.

It's not as if the current iPhone isn't thin enough anyway. Perhaps they should make it thicker so that they could include a decent battery? (avoiding the need of that tumour-esque "smart battery case" they just came out with)

Removing the headphone port isn't necessarily going to make the iPhone any thinner (I believe the lightning port is almost equal in thickness, but it might lose 0.1mm to keep their marketing team happy with the 'thinnest iPhone ever' ) its more the volume inside that it takes up due to the depth which limits placement of components. I believe its really all in the name of freeing that space for newer components/a larger battery/better packaging of current components

Even on that basis it wouldn't be much of a saving - looking at the 6s, the lightning connector/board wouldn't decrease in size much if the 3.5mm was removed. http://blogs-images.forbes.com/anton...e-iphone-6.jpg

Not much scope to put in a bigger battery either, unless you eradicated the entire lightning board assembly

Removing it as is is not directly going to allow a bigger battery I agree, but shuffle a few components around and I'm sure that space won't go to waste - maybe moving some components from the top board onto the lightning board or adding a 2nd speaker or a fancy new chip powering a new feature...
http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/29/a...oomberg-rumor/

I wonder if this points towards a longer term trend of a device with no physical ports or plugs at all?

A completely sealed unit, Bluetooth for headphones and wireless charging. It could make for thinner, stronger, more water proof devices.

I bet R&D is on it for the 8 or 9 already...

Of course. Wires are just stupid. Why do we need them these days? The future does include attaching yourself to things with copper cable.

This would be even more problematic, because not only do I not have bluetooth headphones, but I also then wouldn't be able to use my external 10,000mAh battery bank that I sometimes carry around with me.

As I said previously, I don't care if the device is 10mm thick, 15mm thick or 30mm thick, so long as it has all of the functionality that I need, then I don't really care about the dimensions.

And btw, looking on that image exposing the internals, removing the 3.5mm connector on it's own would be no good to reduce thickness; the Lightning port would also have to go - thus reducing practicalities even further....

They would need to improve the wireless alternative to be able to do a one to many feed which is something I often do.

Like other have said this has been rumoured for a while and im sure there are some threads about the the forum on this subject.

Apple will save money by not including a headphone socket. They will also make money by selling an adapter. Apple bought Beats so they can sell Bluetooth headphones to Apple fans. With falling sales of iPhones this will boost their enormous profits. What is there not to like? Fans will be queuing round the block in September and will be walking out the shop with Adapters and Beats headphones as well as an iPhone 7.

Waterproofing would be a compelling reason to remove the headphone socket.

I could certainly see that happening as well.

I certainly like the idea of wireless charging, but i wouldn't consider it enough of a 'killer' feature to make me want to upgrade again. And if the 7 does indeed do away with the traditional headphone port, I may well not bother with it at all.

This is another example of Apple paving the way... it'll be a quantum leap forward, discarding ancient and moribund technology for a radical new method of connecting phone to personal aural listening devices. New sonic innovations are bound to follow.

Those questioning the wisdom of this are 19th century Luddites, stuck in a reality of no progress, clinging on to outdated ideas about interoperability and so-called compatibility. Stick to your wind up gramophones Granddads! The future is here and it is Lightning (TM).

This will rank up there with the greatest of apple inventions come Sep. On a par with other great inventions such as larger phone screens, NFC, retina, limited bluetooth etc

But surely Apple will have to abandon the lightning connector as well and use usb type c like the rest of the civilised world. Then getting rid of the 3.5mm socket becomes viable.

It's funny that Apple use Lightning when they helped invent USB-C.