Apple betting big on wireless headphones

Bluetooth headphones are cool. Or at least, that is what Apple is hoping we will all think. Never mind that the company's latest invention, the AirPods, have been mocked and compared to hanging electric toothbrush heads from your ears; we're facing the future, and it's wireless.

Wireless headphones can and do work for some people. And the technology in the AirPods – the noise-cancelling mics, the Siri integration – may turn out to be useful, if people can get over the hurdle of talking to themselves in public while issuing instructions to Siri.

But part of the problem may be that in removing the headphone jack from the iPhone, Apple is giving users no choice.

Is ditching the headphone jack a brave move? Apple's senior vice president Phil Schiller stood on the stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and said Apple's designers removed the jack because they had "courage". Predictably, the backlash was swift.

That Apple was planning to get rid of the headphone jack is nothing new; the plan had been leaked weeks ago. But the news still jarred.

The 3.5mm jack is an industry standard for a reason. Around in its current form for the past 50 years, it’s simple, straightforward and open to anyone who wanted to use it.

It’s not just headphones that use it either; there are plenty of uses for the port, including payment readers and medical accessories. The Lightning jack (currently the place you plug in the charger), on the other hand, is a proprietary standard that is not widely used outside of Apple products.

That means if you want to use wired headphones specifically for your iPhone, you’ll have to invest in a pair that can’t be used with any other devices. And that’s before the ugly possibility of “this accessory is not certified” error messages raises its head.

There are good reasons to make the switch from Apple’s point of view. It frees up vital space in the phone that it can put to better use. It opens up the possibility of better technology because all that will go into the headphones rather than the phone.

It’s not the first time that Apple has moved to ditch an industry standard in favour of a solution it feels will work out better in the long room.

A few years ago, it was the removal of the built-in optical CD drive from its Macbook machines. Now it’s rare to find a built-in optical drive on laptops from other manufacturers, and no one really misses it.

But the headphone jack may be a bridge too far for consumers. Even Apple may have a hard time selling that one.