Since the first rumors emerged claiming Apple would ditch the headphone jack with this fall’s iPhone release, many have been speculating on what exactly Apple will include as a solution. According to a new report from Macotakara, it’s not Lightning-suited EarPods that Apple is planning to include, but rather the standard 3.5mm EarPods and an adapter.
The included adapter would allow users to plug the EarPods or any other pair of 3.5mm headphones into the Lightning port. One commonly suggested solution over the past few months has been to simply ship the iPhone 7 with Lightning EarPods, but that would mean users would need to purchase an adapter separately if they had other headphones with a 3.5mm plug.
Additionally, today’s report claims that the iPhone 7 will be available in a 256GB storage variant, something that has been reported a few times in the past. It’s still unclear, however, what the storage lineup will look like overall. An image emerged last month claiming to show that the iPhone 7 would be available in 16GB, 64GB, and 256GB variants, but a report soon after claimed that the base model would actually be 32GB, with Apple finally ditching the 16GB tier.
Macotakara also claims today that there will be speaker holes on both sides of the Lightning port now, which makes sense seeing that there would be some extra space following the removal of the headphone jack. Despite the addition of more speakers, however, Apple apparently won’t introduce stereo sound on the iPhone and both speakers will be “on a monaural system.”
We ran a poll last month asking users what headphones they would like Apple to bundle with the iPhone 7. The majority of voters said they would like Lightning EarPods to be included with the device, while just 7 percent of responders said they want a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter.
Even though Apple will apparently be shipping the standard 3.5mm EarPods with the iPhone 7, it could still sell Lightning-based headphones separately. As we reported earlier this year, Apple is developing revamped, cord-free Beats to go along with the iPhone 7. The earbuds are entirely wireless and will be charged via an included carrying case.
From a manufacturing purpose, it makes sense for Apple to continue to include the 3.5mm EarPods this year. If Apple were to switch to Lightning EarPods, then it would still have to manufacture 3.5mm EarPods too for previous generation devices and the 4-inch iPhone SE, which likely won’t be refreshed again until next spring.
What do you think of the possibility of Apple including 3.5mm EarPods and an adapter with the iPhone 7, as opposed to Lightning EarPods?
