this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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Removing useful features to make people spend more money on something else you're selling isn't "technology progressing", it's capitalism at work. It's corporations milking their users. The whole removal of the headphone jack started by apple to make their users buy their airpods. More money, my friend. More money.
It’s not to spend more money, there’s a real increase in value Bluetooth provides to most people. Yes there are edge cases, but when you can get a a blue tooth headset for $5-20 it’s not really cost prohibitive any more.
Remember when the singe piece Bluetooth mics were like $100 when Bluetooth first started hitting mainstream phones? Many people didn’t think it was worth $100 to use an unwired headset for phone calls.
Well now, that phone is also your entire music collection, your cable box and much more. Being untethered makes a lot more sense.
In addition, easily Bluetooth destroyed device batteries, now it’s more power and you can just leave it running all the time in your phone.
It IS to spend more money. Does apple or Samsung sell you Bluetooth headphones for $5 - $20? Nope, those cheap ones are a side effect of the removal of the jack and the instruction of Bluetooth airpods. And it's a good side effect, btw. I do agree with you that Bluetooth headsets are much better than wired in terms of convenience and not being tethered to your phone, but there are way more use cases of the jack than just for headphones. There are professionals who would never ever use Bluetooth over wired that got fucked over and had to use converters and shit. I do see your point.
I think also, the removal of the port allowed for better engineering around the screen and better waterproofing and thinner devices.
I think with the EU mandating phones use USB-C, it might push apple into to drop port charging all together. You may see MagSafe only charging iPhones in the EU or everywhere soon.