Headphone Type-C Apocalypse

All signs point to the mobile industry moving towards headphone apocalypse by dropping the 3.5 mm standard jack. I know it potentially means more money, but first and foremost it means confused and frustrated consumers.

Envision this: the next phone you are about to buy will not have a standard analog headphone socket. You can now trash your high quality Bose, Monster, Beats or whatever you've been using recently. Or you can use a Type-C- to - 3.5mm dongle (yeah, yet another dongle). The problem not just the dongle itself, but the fact it will occupy the only port the phone has, so you won't be able to charge it while having headphones plugged in. The same applies to Apple devices, the only difference is they will have the Lightning port. On iPhones and iPads that is, because on MacBooks there is the Type-C USB (but Apple fans can afford having two sets of headsets, can't they?). Unless Apple drops Lightning and adopts Type-C across the product line (which it should).

So today your headphones have a 3.5mm jack that plugs in any phone, any laptop and any other audio, including an airline seat. When dropped, some Apples will have Lightning, some Apples will have Type-C, Androids will have Type-C and aircraft seats will remain with 3.5mm for the next 10 years. Or 20.

This is utterly stupid. One of the most common audio connectivity standard is now being dropped for some illusive gains of fraction of a millimeter in device thickness at a price of adding several dongles to a cable bag.

It seems only Bluetooth will benefit from this mess: it has been the global defacto standard for wireless audio for years and nobody plans to drop it anytime soon.