iPhone 7: This is what headphone maker Jaybird has to say on Apple ditching headphone jack

NEW DELHI: There have been rumours since past several months that Apple may drop 3.5mm headphone jack in its next iPhones, likely to be called iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The company is instead likely to launch both Bluetooth headphones and headphones with lightning connectors as a part of the major change in terms of design in the new iPhones. As the countdown to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus starts, headphone maker JayBird spoke to Forbes about its take on Apple’s speculated move. For those unaware, JayBird was recently acquired by Logitech for $50million.

In an interview, JayBird chief marketing officer Rene Oehlerking told Brooke Crothers, a contributor for Forbes, “My personal opinion is that it’s absolutely going to happen. It’s going to happen next week when they announce it. And I believe this will be seen as very similar to when Apple decided to get rid of the floppy disk or decided to get rid of the CD-ROM or DVD drives in all of their MacBooks. It’s going to be that kind of a leap.”

Oehlerking further added that 3.5mm headphone jack came with Walkman and the CD players and while all of them have been replaced by more advanced tech, 3.5mm headphone jack stayed unchanged and is now outdated.

JayBird CMO said that shifting from 3.5mm headphone jack to lightning connector-based headphones will still compress and decompress audio “but the music quality can be drastically enhanced.”

According to him, “there will be some kind of adapter in the iPhone 7 box” that will enable using of wired headphones via the Lightning port.

The rumours suggesting Apple to bring Lightning EarPods with the launch of the iPhone 7 got more credibility recently, courtesy a leaked image of iPhone 7 Plus’ alleged packaging. As per the image, Apple will be bundling a Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adaptor and a Lightning to USB cable adaptor inside the box of the new iPhone.