Don’t Blame Apple For Ditching The Headphone Jack, Blame Yourself
Another year, another iPhone. This year in the name of innovation, Tim Cook has taken a kitchen knife to the humble headphone cord and is coaxing us into buying the pinnacle of pointlessness — a $159 pair of so-called “Air Buds”.
By removing the traditional headphone jack, he’s threatening to make the headphone cord join the floppy disk, VHS and the CD on the vintage scrap heap.
So has Apple finally gone too far?
The criticisms have come with a vengeance. The memes speak for themselves.
Not only are the “Air Buds” made to be lost, they also have their own battery — as if we needed something else to worry about charging. They’ve even been flagged as a potential choking hazard. All this without even improving the remarkably shit quality of existing iPhone headphones. If you don’t want to shell out for wireless earphones, you can use the headphones provided by Apple which connect to via the charging port or use an adapter to listen with any other set of headphones (meaning you can’t listen to music and charge at the same time).
Why the change?
There was nothing remotely wrong with the headphone jack. Nobody wanted Apple to remove it. No Android user would consider switching to Apple for the lack of headphone jack — quite the opposite. Many iPhone users will now weigh up the benefits of continuing with Apple after this announcement.
There are those that will argue that the outrage is unjustified. After all, we moaned when Apple ditched the old charging port for the Lightning Port in the iPhone 5, just as many did when Apple removed the floppy disk drive from the iMac. Apple has made a name of creating disputive changes and providing innovation when we didn’t ask for it. After a few months of howling our rage, we invariably move on. The new design will allow for more room for other features in the iPhone and slightly better quality audio.
But even for Apple, this seems like an arrogant stretch. This isn’t akin to Apple asking us to upgrade our chargers — it’s asking us to change the whole way we listen to our phones. Apple is no longer sprinting ahead of its opposition, it’s in a slump — and the past few years have been littered with costly flops including the Apple Watch. If frustrated customers were looking for a trigger to change operating systems, this is it.
Blame Yourself
But if you’re seething at the arrogance of Apple and their new choking hazard, don’t blame them. It’s time we blamed ourselves.
Take a look at your current iPhone. What exact complaints do you have? Perhaps you’d like a better battery, a higher quality screen or a slightly larger screen?
Yet if Tim Cook fronted the world’s media with these exact changes in the iPhone 7, there would be mass disappointment. Pundits would call it the beginning of Apple’s downfall. Batteries and cameras don’t coax customers to line up for days or make international headlines — removing a headphone jack does.
We have developed an insatiable hunger for revolutionary innovation. Every year we await the announcement with bated breath. Yet we’re not awaiting the changes we actually desire, but changes that will surprise and shock us — even if we don’t know what that is.
Take the iPhone SE as an example. It is arguably the most practical iPhone to date — with the advanced tech of the iPhone 6S in the handy size of an iPhone 5 including a fantastic camera and incredible battery life. Yet when it was announced, it was met with lukewarm media attention and a collective “meh” from the public. Few people have even heard of it.
Apple has thrived off a series of enormous hits — from the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad. The Apple Watch was supposed to join this remarkable lineage.
The reality is that a confounding, pointless revolutionary change is better than no change at all. Ditching the headphone jack and the media firestorm it creates is better than unveiling a boring, practical iPhone. It might provoke anger, frustration and maybe even contempt — but the air of innovation remains. For Apple, this is invaluable.
We have to face the reality that without a major structural rethink (such as the failing Apple Watch), there are limited innovations left for the iPhone. We are reaching a saturation point where the difference between the best Android phone and the best iPhone is negligible. We are approaching a perfect device for its purpose.
And yet we demand more. We can’t even articulate what we want, but we want it all the same. Our insatiable desire for innovation is backing Tim Cook into a corner, forcing Apple to frantically break new ground even when it doesn’t make sense.
That’s how we’ve arrived at a farcical $159 choking hazard. We asked for it — even if we didn’t realise it. It’s time we stopped blaming Apple and instead blame the rampant culture of consumerism instead. We need to lower our expectations and accept that innovation and creativity doesn’t conform to a yearly iPhone announcement. If we want particular innovations, we should demand them. But until then, we must stop demanding change for change’s sake and forgive Apple for mediocrity.
It’s just a pity the global economy doesn’t work that way.
This article by Cameron Nicholls was originally published at The Vocal.
