Despite recent crackdowns Apple has had to enforce upon leaks, this information comes from a leaked source, saying the technology giant plans to discard the much loved 3.5mm jack headphone input in favour of a Lightening port, possibly in the next few years. No more will we be able to plug in our favourite headphones and listen to our favourite music.
The motivation behind Apple’s £3.2 billion Beats acquisition is starting to show.
What will be next as Apple attempts to take over the world, controlling how we behave and what we will be forced to buy?
Lightening Port
The beauty of using the Lightening port is the fact it will allow users to switch from analogue to digital output, which in theory, will give users an extremely high digital output (48 kHz). Apple will market this as a unique benefit, but in reality, it’s unlikely any of us will notice the difference, unless we can afford ridiculously high quality headphones. The Lightening port will also be able to receive power, meaning you could charge your device while listening to music.
Beats
This issue starts to put an end to speculation on why Apple would want to spend $3.2 billion acquiring Beats. The addition of a design tweak meaning millions of users will have to buy Apple branded products (Lightening headphones) brings Apple the ability to earn millions from sales and license fees.
Has Apple become so big that customer satisfaction no longer matters? This move means it’s going to make life really complicated for users and will tie us in more and more tightly to using Apple products. Is Apple just getting a bit greedy? As things stand today, we can attach any headphones we like to the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac, but with this considerable design alteration, we’re going to have to buy Apple-branded headphones. But Apple doesn’t make HIFIs, amps and a whole array of other kit for which users are going to need an adaptor.
This move, whilst being an obviously lucrative idea for Apple, is not going to be an easy shift for Apple-loyal customers, nevermind the sceptics.
