3.5mm Jack and Beacons

One of the unintended consequences of [Apple] dropping the 3.5mm headphone jack may be an increased adoption of Bluetooth beacons. For beacons to be effective, phones need to have Bluetooth enabled. Which still many users don't do. Either because they don't have a reason or because they believe it eats battery fast (the latter is a habit from the Nokia 6310 times, when phones lasted for a week and has virtually no effect today).

When an audio jack is no longer available and other wired options are still not compatible (Lightning on iPhones and USB Type-C elsewhere), many users will bet on the only safe and prevailing wireless audio standard: Bluetooth. More Bluetooth audio accessories will cause more Bluetooth adapters turned on permanently, opening more opportunities for beacons.

It looks like smartphones are firmly settling now on three radios: cellular (for outdoor), WiFi (for indoor data streaming) and Bluetooth (for all kinds of accessories and IoT). Bluetooth clearly benefits from the 3.5mm port being dropped and surely moves to become the way local wireless interactions are performed.