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Opinion: How & when might Apple remove the headphone jack from Macs?

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<p>As expected, the most talked-about feature of the iPhone 7 was the one Apple removed: the 3.5mm headphone socket. The company did, though, come to the party prepared. It most likely <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/01/opinion-lightning-3-5mm-headphone-socket-iphone-7/" target="_blank">planned to leak[/url] the move a long time in advance, to give people time to get used to the idea and to inform headphone purchasing decisions.</p>
<p>It supplied Lightning EarPods in the box, so the vast majority of iPhone owners who never use anything else could simply shrug and get on with it. It also included a 3.5mm-to-Lightning adapter so that those with existing wired headphones weren’t left out in the cold.</p>
<p>It marshalled its arguments, both <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2016/06/14/apple-shares-full-wwdc-2016-keynote-on-youtube/" target="_blank">during the keynote[/url] and in <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/14/tim-cook-gma-iphone-7-interview/" target="_blank">subsequent interviews[/url]: that it needed the space for a larger battery, taptic feedback engine and second speaker. It even used the word ‘courage’ to <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/09/steve-jobs-quote-phil-schiller-iphone-7/" target="_blank">echo Steve Jobs[/url] talking about risking unpopularity when abandoning a standard.</p>
<p>Finally, it pushed wireless as the future for headphones, launching its own <a href="https://9to5mac.com/guides/airpods/" target="_blank">AirPods[/url] and creating a <a href="https://9to5mac.com/guides/w1/" target="_blank">W1 chip[/url] for fast and seamless pairing across Apple devices. We’ve already seen these in a pair of <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/15/hands-on-beats-solo3-wireless-the-first-available-headphones-featuring-apples-new-w1-chip-video/" target="_blank">Beats headphones[/url], though sadly they are <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/12/apple-w1-chip-how-it-works/" target="_blank">unlikely[/url] to be licensed to other manufacturers.</p>
<p>The fallout from the decision, then, so far seems to be limited. Will Apple be encouraged by this to make the same decision with MacBooks? It’s already <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/14/headphone-jack-removed-from-macbook-pro/" target="_blank">testing the waters[/url]. If so, how and when will MacBooks also lose the 3.5mm headphone socket … ?</p>
<p> <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/15/when-will-apple-drop-headphone-socket-from-mac/#more-446499" class="more-link">more…[/url]</p>
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