A couple years ago, I got a bit of saltwater in my iPhone and the headphone jack failed. Since the next generation of iPhone (the iPhone X) was about to come out, I held onto it for a couple months and bought AirPods.
I then realized this was Apple's real reason for eliminating the headphone jack. It had nothing to do with courage. It was about eliminating a deeply ingrained user habit so they could solve the problem they themselves created. I wouldn't have bothered with the AirPods if my headphone jack had continued to function.
That said, I don't know if Apple's strategy bothers me. There are a lot of user behaviors rooted in history and old constraints rather than good usability. There are a lot of downsides, but as someone who views technology as ephemeral I don't know if it matters to me.
I don't think the person you replied to is saying they wanted wires, just that they were entrenched in using what they had until they were forced to switch. It sounds like they like the new world better, just it took a push to get them to switch.
> To do away with the point of failure that you so aptly illustrated by getting salt water in your phone?
That's Apple's point of failure. The rest of the industry (mostly) has worked out how to make a headphone jack water-resistant, years before Apple made any phone water-resistant at that.
> Yes, by removing the headphone jack on high-end phones, just like Apple did.
No, this is clearly incorrect. As I said in my original comment, there were water-resistant phones with headphones jacks years before Apple released one without a headphone jack, and there are ones being released now as well. While Samsung removed a headphone jack for a generation of their flagship phones, the generations before and after were both water-resistant as well. Samsung's newest releases (S10 Lite and Note10 Lite) both have headphone jacks and are water-resistant.
>so they could solve the problem they themselves created
I don't know if I agree with this assessment. Apple is, to a fault, driven by the user experience of their products and what the "ideal" of a situation should be. It's very likely that AirPods, or some early variant, was discussed while Steve Jobs was at Apple and the conversation probably went something like:
"What would be the perfect user experience for listening to music on an iPhone?"
"I pick up my phone and hit play and the music plays directly into my ears."
AirPods are about as close as someone can get to buying the product, putting them in their ears, and immediately listening as you can get. They set themselves up as soon as you open their case and they automatically connect to the active audio device when you put them in your ears. No one would ever add a wired cable to that process unless they absolutely had to for technical reasons. The only way to make this even more ideal is that the listening device is already in your ear or they can beam the audio directly into your ear canal without some kind of device you insert.
> But after having used Bluetooth headphones for a while, going back to wired headphones was pure hell.
For me going back to wired was amazing. I no longer had to charge my headphone to listen to my music. Want to output to the speaker? Just unplug them physically.
I'm sure the airpod support this much better than the Bluetooth headphone I had on Android, but my biggest pet peeve was shutting them down each time I put them in my pocket, or else any call would go to them.
As you said yourself ... the airpods are better bluetooth headphones than the ones you had.
Charging is mostly a nonissue due to the case having a battery.
shutting down is as simple as putting them in the case.
There are downsides (Airpods are expensive and though they can last a few years in the end are a throwaway product), but not having a cable being in the way and pulling out the headphones is also something I'd consider a downside so there's that I guess.
> As you said yourself ... the airpods are better bluetooth headphones than the ones you had.
Sure but we were talking about switching from bluetooth headphone to wired one, thus why I added that part even though we were on an Airpod thread.
> Charging is mostly a nonissue due to the case having a battery.
Which you still need to charge, the issue persist. Their battery life wasn't the issue, they could works multiple days without being charged, which just add to the issue because then it means I could go multiple days without charging then and then forgetting to do it.
> shutting down is as simple as putting them in the case
That's certainly a nice feature that would alleviate my biggest issue, that's for sure. I knew they would have fixed that or else they wouldn't be as popular, or at least, much more people would complains about that.
> not having a cable being in the way and pulling out the headphones is also something I'd consider a downside so there's that I guess.
Sure but that's a minor downside for me versus the issues I mentioned about wireless headphone. The only times I accidentally pulled down my cable was when I was training on a treadmill, which is also what made me buy bluetooth headphone in the first place. I stopped using them before stopping training...
You could see this a different way. Apple has a way of being the forcing function on tech: serial ports, CD drives, low-res displays, Flash, USB-A, headphone jacks.
They push us into a new shift in technology each time. It's like accelerating us by being a single large agent. No one else has the market presence. Suddenly I was able to buy Jabra earbuds that are pretty damned good but the equivalent of which cost twice or thrice as much.
I've always wanted ones like this, not the weird "around the back of the head like I can't keep my glasses on" ones that make me look like a dork and not the "sound quality is worthless and you look like a stock trader" jawbone ones. This is the best world.
I used to have wired headphones die all the time due to stress on the wires connecting to the earbuds or to the phone, and get ripped out while walking nonchalantly down the road. There are a lot of problems with wires that are solved by not having them.
This is quite alien to me, I've had the same pair of pink Sony (£10) Earbuds* for the last 3 years on pretty much continuous use (Running, Working, Walking etc.) and they're faultless despite having been through the wash twice (and various other beatings).
* My hearing is a bit weird so with the right EQ they're better than pretty much anything other than actual speakers for me.
I then realized this was Apple's real reason for eliminating the headphone jack. It had nothing to do with courage. It was about eliminating a deeply ingrained user habit so they could solve the problem they themselves created. I wouldn't have bothered with the AirPods if my headphone jack had continued to function.
That said, I don't know if Apple's strategy bothers me. There are a lot of user behaviors rooted in history and old constraints rather than good usability. There are a lot of downsides, but as someone who views technology as ephemeral I don't know if it matters to me.