Listen Up: The Next iPhone Might Ditch The Headphone Port

Ear ye, ear ye...

Rumours have begun swirling about Apple’s iPhone 7 (not due out, mind you, for another year), with usually-reliable Japanese blog MacOtakara suggesting the headphone port is on the way out. (Translation comes courtesy of News.com.au.)

It’s believed the headphone port, all round and port-y, is what’s keeping the iPhone from slimming down further.

To rectify this, MacOtakara’s source has said the headphone port will go the way of the dodo and instead be replaced by something similar to the current Lightning charger port. That’ll reportedly make the iPhone 7 a whole 1mm thinner. Congratulations on reaching your goal weight, iPhone 7.

The switch also suggests Apple will soon introduce a new set of headphones. This would be their first time rebuilding the EarPods in four years.

For those worried that their headphones will suddenly become incompatible with the iPhone 7 (if this indeed goes ahead), MacOtakara’s source says the phone will come equipped with a digital-to-audio converter, allowing backwards compatibility with regularly wired headphones. But, of course, you’ll probably need to buy an adapter to connect the port to your suddenly old school headphones.

Though this rumour emerged ahead of the launch of the iPhone 6, there’s good reason to think this is an inevitability for Apple. In June of 2014, Apple introduced new specifications for third party manufacturers that would help them create headphones that connect via Lightning cable. Phillips has already launched a couple of headphones to that effect.

You can probably expect Beats to start developing lightning port cables for their headphones should Apple indeed make the switch.

That is to say, if Taylor allows them to make the switch.