[kramer5150]

I had nothing but problems with my iPhone lightning connector cables.  I averaged a lightning cable failure every 3-4 weeks in the two years I had an iPhone.  Made no difference whether it was Apple original, clone generic, ATT store brand, or Amazon basic.  The cable strain relief on all of them is terrible.  Many of my cables failed within 2 weeks!!!  I got sick and tired of it.  ~$23 every month. 
 
I can't imagine even further basing their designs around such a flaw.

 

[AUDIOBREEDER]

I think it's insane to change an era of technology which has got better as years rolled on. If the headphones that were made say from 2007 were available when discmans & walkmans were out in the 90s technology would have been so advanced and maybe it would an idea to get rid of the jack.
But after all these years people have spent their money buying headphones I doubt anytime soon this trend will occur and could start the demise of Apple.
How much thinner do they want to make the iPhone. The current size of the newer iPhone and other android phones spell that people want bigger phones right enough to fit the pocket. Taking that jack out unless they want to add CO2 to a parachute technology that avoids a drop may be an idea but useless.
There are countless audio technology from our past which although is bulky compared to our gadgets which have quality can be restored for a fraction of what we are paying for now and sound better.
A device without a headphone jack would be like a zombie feeding on vegetables.

 

[FFBookman]

I think it's insane to change an era of technology which has got better as years rolled on. If the headphones that were made say from 2007 were available when discmans & walkmans were out in the 90s technology would have been so advanced and maybe it would an idea to get rid of the jack.
But after all these years people have spent their money buying headphones I doubt anytime soon this trend will occur and could start the demise of Apple.
How much thinner do they want to make the iPhone. The current size of the newer iPhone and other android phones spell that people want bigger phones right enough to fit the pocket. Taking that jack out unless they want to add CO2 to a parachute technology that avoids a drop may be an idea but useless.
There are countless audio technology from our past which although is bulky compared to our gadgets which have quality can be restored for a fraction of what we are paying for now and sound better.
A device without a headphone jack would be like a zombie feeding on vegetables.

the main benefits of killing the apple-enhanced mini-jack --- (from apple's perspective)
 

1. it's now the largest port internally
2. it's the most common iPhone part failure
3. it's the most common iPhone part requiring service/cleaning
4. it's width cannot be reduced below it's current diameter
5. it cannot easily be made waterproof
6. the 4-ring version cannot be expanded anymore, it is topped out in expansion
7. there is no licensing revenue or product differentiation in it

 

[FFBookman]

  I had nothing but problems with my iPhone lightning connector cables.  I averaged a lightning cable failure every 3-4 weeks in the two years I had an iPhone.  Made no difference whether it was Apple original, clone generic, ATT store brand, or Amazon basic.  The cable strain relief on all of them is terrible.  Many of my cables failed within 2 weeks!!!  I got sick and tired of it.  ~$23 every month. 
 
I can't imagine even further basing their designs around such a flaw.

You may have very bad luck or are really rough on your cables.  None of my lightning cables have failed in 1+ years, including Apple brand, Monoprice, and CVS cheap ones. No one else I know is complaining about lightning build quality.

 

[kramer5150]

Yeah most definitely... I beat the living crap out of that iPhone 5C with the Lifeproof case and Griffin survivor series cases.  The 5C is a bomb proof phone... physically.  As an avid outdoor enthusiast, backpacking, camping and the likes the iPhone 5C was in regular use in the field as my main camera for pics and video.  With its short battery life, I almost always had a battery bank and lightning cable plugged in to maintain battery charge.  So most definitely I was constantly pushing the limits of what the strain relief can handle.
 
So with that in mind, the lightning cables are just no good for me.

 

[Allanmarcus]

First, Ethernet is not deprecated. Not even close. Apple just doesn't include it on laptops. It's still there on desktops.
 
Second, it's not just Apple that is thinking about this. USB C will usher in the death of the 3.5mm jack on the rest of mobile devices.
 
From Computer Audiophile
 

I met with the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) for an hour at the [CES 2016] show. We talked about the move to USB type C and how it may effect the word of USB audio. I expect to see many mobile phones remove the 3.5mm analog audio jack in favor of the USB-C connector.

 

[hypersonic]

  First, Ethernet is not deprecated. Not even close. Apple just doesn't include it on laptops. It's still there on desktops.
 
Second, it's not just Apple that is thinking about this. USB C will usher in the death of the 3.5mm jack on the rest of mobile devices.
 
From Computer Audiophile
 

Can USB type C carries analog audio signal?
Or you mean every headphones/iem in the future will carry it's own DAC+amplification?
I don't think the latter will be reality in a long time

 

[Allanmarcus]

 

  First, Ethernet is not deprecated. Not even close. Apple just doesn't include it on laptops. It's still there on desktops.
 
Second, it's not just Apple that is thinking about this. USB C will usher in the death of the 3.5mm jack on the rest of mobile devices.
 
From Computer Audiophile
 

Can USB type C carries analog audio signal?
Or you mean every headphones/iem in the future will carry it's own DAC+amplification?
I don't think the latter will be reality in a long time

I do not think so, but it doesn't matter. We would like to think that the work cares about sound quality, but the truth is that "good enough" is acceptable to most people. The 3.5 jack cost money to include. If all the vendors, not just apple, can develop a cheap DAC/amp/cable for ear buds, or jsut through cheap BT earbuds in the box, most people will not know the difference. 

 

[hypersonic]

 
I do not think so, but it doesn't matter. We would like to think that the work cares about sound quality, but the truth is that "good enough" is acceptable to most people. The 3.5 jack cost money to include. If all the vendors, not just apple, can develop a cheap DAC/amp/cable for ear buds, or jsut through cheap BT earbuds in the box, most people will not know the difference. 

The cost of a headphone jack is certainly not a concern. It costs virtually nothing in a few hundred bucks device.
And I am not talking about the sound quality here.
Something like a phone will have DAC and amp in it anyway, or the future phones will not come with any speaker?
Most likely the whole audio processing is already included in the SoC even today.
It is not practical to force every headphones to come with their dac and amp
It's just Apple's stupid marketing strategies to lure idiots in buying beats crap.
And because the device communicate with the headphone digitally, they can implement restriction so nothing else is compatible except beats
Or some bullcrap like apple music (or whatever it's called) will only work with certified headphones, and the excuse would be better experience blablabla...

 

[Allanmarcus]

 

 
I do not think so, but it doesn't matter. We would like to think that the work cares about sound quality, but the truth is that "good enough" is acceptable to most people. The 3.5 jack cost money to include. If all the vendors, not just apple, can develop a cheap DAC/amp/cable for ear buds, or jsut through cheap BT earbuds in the box, most people will not know the difference. 

The cost of a headphone jack is certainly not a concern. It costs virtually nothing in a few hundred bucks device.
And I am not talking about the sound quality here.
Something like a phone will have DAC and amp in it anyway, or the future phones will not come with any speaker?
Most likely the whole audio processing is already included in the SoC even today.
It is not practical to force every headphones to come with their dac and amp
It's just Apple's stupid marketing strategies to lure idiots in buying beats crap.
And because the device communicate with the headphone digitally, they can implement restriction so nothing else is compatible except beats
Or some bullcrap like apple music (or whatever it's called) will only work with certified headphones, and the excuse would be better experience blablabla...

Apple has nothing to do with the comment from Computer Audiophile. Apple doesn't even use USB C on iOS devices. His comment was about every other phone manufacturer.  

 

[hypersonic]

 
Apple has nothing to do with the comment from Computer Audiophile. Apple doesn't even use USB C on iOS devices. His comment was about every other phone manufacturer.  

I mentioned Apple because the OP was talking about it. What we're seeing is Apple trying to bring up a trend.
OK I did some reading elsewhere, analog audio signal can be multiplexed onto some of the pins, so a type C connector can output audio signal.
It's totally possible for mobile phone manufacturers to remove 3.5 mm jack on their devices.
 
But in this case, unless specialized conversion is implemented into the every headphone/headset, there will most likely be adapters to convert it back to 3.5 mm jack. 
3.5 mm jack is dominating the market, almost all consumer wired headset/headphone use that plug, and people use them not just on phones, but on every other things audio related. People won't just throw away every headphones, computers and all the things with this connector on it immediately for their shiny new phone. 
I think we can all agree on 3.5 mm jack will be replaced at some point, the same with all technologies. But there is still a long, long way to go for the transition.
 
Modern display standard is so much better than the old analog output, but VGA is still a thing and not replaced by display port, HDMI, etc.

 

[FFBookman]

  I mentioned Apple because the OP was talking about it. What we're seeing is Apple trying to bring up a trend.
OK I did some reading elsewhere, analog audio signal can be multiplexed onto some of the pins, so a type C connector can output audio signal.
It's totally possible for mobile phone manufacturers to remove 3.5 mm jack on their devices.
 
But in this case, unless specialized conversion is implemented into the every headphone/headset, there will most likely be adapters to convert it back to 3.5 mm jack. 
3.5 mm jack is dominating the market, almost all consumer wired headset/headphone use that plug, and people use them not just on phones, but on every other things audio related. People won't just throw away every headphones, computers and all the things with this connector on it immediately for their shiny new phone. 
I think we can all agree on 3.5 mm jack will be replaced at some point, the same with all technologies. But there is still a long, long way to go for the transition.
 
Modern display standard is so much better than the old analog output, but VGA is still a thing and not replaced by display port, HDMI, etc.

Totally agree. Cool to know you can run analog audio down a USB C cable.   Wonder how it performs against unbalanced minijack, balanced minijack, and XLR. I'd like to see distances improve -- imagine being able to plug into a USB-C wall jack and run hi-res audio through your house with no interference or degradation, that could be cool.  Although wifi to DAC and powered speakers would also do the trick there.
 
I don't think the minijack will go anywhere for another 20+ years, perhaps by then every gadget will be wirelessly connected.
 
Analog's not going anywhere, it will forever be the human, physical method of transport, the end points. And if you have analog you have interconnects.