Apple Inc.’s Brilliantly Evil iPhone 7 Feature Will Enrage You (AAPL)

Advertisement

Apple Inc. (AAPL) isn’t exactly known for conformity. In fact, the Cupertino, California-based company is famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) for marching to the beat of its own drum.

Apple Inc.'s Brilliantly Evil iPhone 7 Feature Will Enrage You (AAPL)But if you want to listen to that proverbial drumbeat on next year’s iPhone 7, you may need a pair of wireless headphones, which Apple will gleefully upcharge you for.

That’s right folks, AAPL may be doing away with the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack altogether — a ubiquitous feature of modern mobile technology. And I hate to say it, but it makes a lot of sense.

Here’s the rationale behind the move, which would be equal parts evil, brilliant and absolutely infuriating.

Trimming the Fat

Before getting into the logic behind the change, I should be clear: This is only a rumored change to the iPhone 7. AAPL plays information on its future products close to the chest, and confirming a major change like this to its flagship product almost a year before its release would be very un-Apple-like.

The rumors stem from the Japanese Apple blog MacOtakara, which cites a “reliable source” as saying the iPhone 7 will literally be too thin to incorporate the 3.5 mm headphone jack. In turn, AAPL will force its sonically inclined customers to use Bluetooth headphones or headphones that plug into Apple’s proprietary Lightning port.

This doesn’t imply that AAPL would make the iPhone 7 thinner than 3.5mm — the iPhone 6S is 7.1mm, so that’d be quite a jump — but that headphone jack still limits things if you’re constantly seeking out the slimmer, sexier phone design.

While these are merely rumors right now, I’d be shocked if Apple didn’t do this. After all, they can generate extra accessories revenue from adapter sales for those who don’t own bluetooth headphones or don’t want to shell out that kind of dough. It’s not hard to imagine AAPL charging $29.99 for a Lightning port-to-headphone jack adapter.

More importantly though, Apple owns Beats, the streaming audio and headphones company AAPL bought for $3 billion last year. Conveniently, Beats already makes wireless, bluetooth-enabled headphones that run anywhere from $199 to $379 a pop. Talk about synergies.

It’s also important to Apple and its top brass that it continue to be viewed as an innovator, however shallow that may sound. Apple’s vigilant march toward design simplicity means that eradicating wires wherever possible is not only a logical next step, but actually not that revolutionary as far as Apple is concerned.

From Apple’s notorious refusal to support Adobe (ADBE) Flash, to the abandonment of the standard USB port in the newest MacBook, all the way back to the controversial decision to ship the iMac without a floppy disk drive back in 1998, AAPL has been stubbornly forcing design in its own direction for decades.

Of course, Apple runs the risk of alienating customers who don’t feel like buying pricey Bluetooth headphones or an adapter, but the company is actually making a larger bet that could pay off big.

Last year, it released specs to manufacturers on how to make headphones that connect to the Lightning port — so being a first mover in sending the headphone jack the way of the dodo may indeed be the endgame.

As an Apple shareholder, I’m excited. As a consumer, I’m less than enthused.

As of this writing, John Divine was long AAPL stock. You can follow him on Twitter at @divinebizkid or email him at editor@investorplace.com.

More From InvestorPlace


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/12/aapl-iphone-7-apple-headphones/.

©2024 InvestorPlace Media, LLC