IPhone 7 May Ditch 3.5mm Headphone Jack For Lightning Connector

It seems that Apple is planning to create the thinnest iPhone yet with the upcoming iPhone 7 as reports about it abandoning the 3.5mm port is causing a buzz on the Internet.

“Reliable sources” told Mac Otakara that the iPhone 7 headphones will only be able to connect over Lightning or Bluetooth. It’ll also have a DAC, or digital-to-audio connector, that will offer backwards compatibility with wired headphones that use the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

The list of rumored changes for the iPhone 7 continues to grow, as the next phone from Apple is rumored to no longer feature a headphone jack.

The design of Apple’s new iPhone is also expected to be different than that of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S, Apple normally makes major design changes to their iPhone every two years.

The question, now, arises; if Apple will ever consider reducing the thickness of the headphone port too.

For iPhone7, Apple will launch a new pair of EarPods that will have a Lightning connector in order to connect to the new smartphone. Other companies that make super-thin phones have already made the same move, using USB audio rather than the traditional input. They could go on to sell their own brand of “smart headphones” that only fit their iPhone devices.

Most devices use the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and therefore most headphones available fit this standard, according to Forbes.

Tech sites are reporting Apple will remove the audio plug from the iPhone 7 so it can make it thinner. On the other side, the new aluminum used by Apple in manufacturing the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus might be strong enough to deal with this.

In a WWDC “Designing Accessories for iOS and OS X” session, Apple implied that they will be moving from the regular jack to lightning enabled headphone accessories. Wireless headphones are growing in popularity, but aren’t that prevalent yet.