There has been a debate lately on many tech forums about Apple’s removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPhone 7. Supporters of the idea claim it is progress, something akin to the end of the floppy drive or the adoption of USB. Both scenarios, proponents claim, are the same thing as moving all audio to wireless. In both cases, options were removed and newer technology put in place. But let’s be clear, the first was about a storage medium that was surpassed by a bigger storage medium (namely floppy disks versus CD/DVD). The second was replacing various computer device connectors with a standard computer device connector. Those were progress.
But in the case of headphones, it isn’t so clear as to reasons why it has to be a wireless only world, and further, why that would be progress. It might be progress for Apple, assuming they sell more Beats wireless headphones, but for those who prefer a wired set of headphones or connections to a stereo system, is that really progress? I honestly don’t know how this is going to develop, but in this case it does seem like removing a feature is removing user options rather than providing progress.
Time will tell.