The biggest argument against it is that the iPhone (currently over 7mm thick), will likely take a couple of years to shave off the two millimetres necessary to get it down below 5mm when the headphone jack will finally not fit into the chassis. Remember the iPod touch is 5mm thick and handles the headphone jack just fine.
It it appears that the smalles the 3.5mm jack has ever been is about 3.92mm meaning the enclosure surrounding the opening is about .25mm around. Now the slimmest enclosure appears to be around 5.38mm in the iPod Nano, which suggests about .5-7mm minimum case thickness on the top or bottom. So 5mm as you suggest is likely the threshold Apple will have to break before they will need to actually worry about the thickness of the headphone connector. So that's why I've never really put a lot of stock in that being the main reason for eliminating the headphone jack. However, the cubic volume that jack hardware occupies is around 184 cubic mm (3.5x3.5x15), and that's a lot of space in such a small device. Switching to the patented "D" connector reduces that somewhat, but still requires over 15mm of depth to accommodate the 4 conductor plug, and doesn't really give Apple much more room, other than thickness -- which as you point out is not likely to approach the 5mm threshold for a couple of years yet.
So as I suggested earlier, the effort to remove the jack at this point is likely to reclaim internal space, in order to spread out internal components so they can make the device thinner, or accommodate a larger capacity battery, or new technologies. The bonus, of course is that they get to increase their licensing of Lightning connectors, and profit from the sales of their own audio equipment, as well as continue to lock customers into their proprietary ecosystem.
And that's another important point. Reducing the iPhone to one port will help increase water resistance. so another benefit Apple can put on its list of improvements when marketing the loss of the 3.5mm connector to its customers.
Do any of these rumors rock people back on their heels? No? A notable absence of game-changers.
Well, it's only been one year since the Apple Watch, and five years since the iPad.
Apple has well over five years for releasing another game changer, if they want to just maintain their average.
As for my own expectations, it looks like the next year may see me replacing my work laptop. This is a good thing.
If the watch sells 15-17M in first calendar year (which seems highly possible), that would be a game changer, putting a fire on the wearables and killing the watch mid end in one blow.
Not sure what the hell people are expecting.
By your measure, the Iphone would only be a game changer by the release of the 3GS.
Well, it's only been one year since the Apple Watch, and five years since the iPad. Apple has well over five years for releasing another game changer, if they want to just maintain their average. As for my own expectations, it looks like the next year may see me replacing my work laptop. This is a good thing.
If the watch sells 15-17M in first calendar year (which seems highly possible), that would be a game changer, putting a fire on the wearables and killing the watch mid end in one blow.
Not sure what the hell people are expecting. By your measure, the Iphone would only be a game changer by the release of the 3GS.
People don't even seem to realize how out of touch they have become. Because the Apple Watch wasn't selling over 10M a quarter in its first quarter of availability it was being written off as a failure. I read many articles which said that Apple should cancel the product because it was clear by July it was a failure.
it seemed to have a lot of interest this holiday season. For a gen1 product, it is doing fantastic. Gen 2 could sell 30M units though and the trolls will still call it a failure since it isn't as big as iPhone.
Apple is the best at ignoring the noise of the media, analysts, and f**king trolls like sog35. Apple, in 2016, just keep being the company that created the successes in the first place.
How about they upgrade the MBA with skylake, increased resolution and a standard 8 GB of RAM in the next two weeks? I will get three.
Actually they really do need to release something this month to help remind everyone Apple exists while CES is on.
Sorry, MBA is not going retina, it's being phased out. Get a thinner and lighter rMBP when they drop later this year.
If I had the awesome power to choose which MacBook line to kill, rMBP, MBA or MB, it would be the MB. interesting tech demonstration, but ultimately far too compromised on the 3Ps: power, price and ports.
The MBA on the other hand, even in its current form factor is more than capable of holding its own against the latest skylake ultrabooks that have been available for three months or so now, it just needs a better screen, the same skylake chip as its competitors (i5-6200U) and double the RAM. Doesn't have to be retina, FHD would do and in fact for battery life might be preferable.
If I had the awesome power to choose which MacBook line to kill, rMBP, MBA or MB, it would be the MB. interesting tech demonstration, but ultimately far too compromised on the 3Ps: power, price and ports.
And that's exactly what people said about the first generation MBA. The second generation took a while but it fixed the power and price (though the ports stayed the same). In the meantime it addressed a niche market of very portable laptop users with limited power needs - and who didn't mind paying a premium for it. It was also a product tha turned heads and started discussions just as the new MB is.
I could see apple adding a second USB-C or Lightning port to the second gen MB, but that's all. Expect it to get a lot more powerful in the next 18 months and become Apple's small, light and sexy laptop.
Well, it's only been one year since the Apple Watch, and five years since the iPad.
Apple has well over five years for releasing another game changer, if they want to just maintain their average.
As for my own expectations, it looks like the next year may see me replacing my work laptop. This is a good thing.
If the watch sells 15-17M in first calendar year (which seems highly possible), that would be a game changer, putting a fire on the wearables and killing the watch mid end in one blow.
Not sure what the hell people are expecting.
By your measure, the Iphone would only be a game changer by the release of the 3GS.
By my measure? Is that an accidental phrase or actual misattribution? The iPhone revolutionised the market the second it was previewed.
Sorry, MBA is not going retina, it's being phased out. Get a thinner and lighter rMBP when they drop later this year.
Seriously, Apple, just drop the titles and go with single names. Killing the MacBook only to bring it back, and then the MacBook Air gets killed while leaving the iPad Air (which is really just the regular iPad), and then having an iPad Pro but an iPhone Plus, and then if they bring back the 4” iPhone it won’t be the iPhone Minus, but rather the iPhone Mini…
iPhone. Comes in three sizes: 4”, 4.7”, & 5.5”. iPad. Comes in three sizes: 7.9”, 9.7”, & 12.9”. MacBook. Comes in three sizes: 12”, 13.3”, & 15.4”. iMac. Comes in three sizes: 21.5”, 27”, and 42”.
But then that signals the only difference is screen size which currently isn't true and I don't think will ever be true.
They've been refreshed more than most of Apples other products already, so I don't know why you would expect more at this point.
I think the elephant in the room is the Mac Pro. If they don't update it sometime in 2016, it will be three years since the last refresh, which was kinda like the only refresh. Despite all that bravado when they launched it about always keeping the Mac Pro in the lineup, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just dropped completely.
Supposedly Intel will have the chips ready for the Mac Pro. However Intel has really dropped the ball over the last year or so. It. Is the same discussion with respect to the MBP, it need viable upgrade chis from Intel and so far nothing in volume.
Also check Windows Central forums and you'll see tons of complaints about problems with the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. I'm glad Apple wasn't first to market new Intel stuff.
Sorry, MBA is not going retina, it's being phased out. Get a thinner and lighter rMBP when they drop later this year.
If I had the awesome power to choose which MacBook line to kill, rMBP, MBA or MB, it would be the MB. interesting tech demonstration, but ultimately far too compromised on the 3Ps: power, price and ports.
The MBA on the other hand, even in its current form factor is more than capable of holding its own against the latest skylake ultrabooks that have been available for three months or so now, it just needs a better screen, the same skylake chip as its competitors (i5-6200U) and double the RAM. Doesn't have to be retina, FHD would do and in fact for battery life might be preferable.
Yeah well I'm just calling it as I see it. The rMB wasn't introduced to be killed a year later and if the MBA was hanging around long term it would have gone retina and got the new trackpads. Once you throw a retina screen into the Air what's the point of the 13" Pro? The way I see it, the Pros will get closer to the Airs in terms of weight and thickness and the rMB will become more powerful and the price will come down. Once that happens Apple can kill the Air line, or leave one of them around just for educational purchases. I'm not convinced the rMB will gain a second port though. Yes we know what happened with the MBA but considering that happened yet Apple still chose to release the rMB with one port tells me they want it to be a wireless machine as much as possible. Also if the Pros do become lighter then the choice for those who need more ports will be easy.
If the watch sells 15-17M in first calendar year (which seems highly possible), that would be a game changer, putting a fire on the wearables and killing the watch mid end in one blow.
Not sure what the hell people are expecting.
By your measure, the Iphone would only be a game changer by the release of the 3GS.
By my measure? Is that an accidental phrase or actual misattribution? The iPhone revolutionised the market the second it was previewed.
Kind of unfair comparison IMO. The iPhone was the internet in your pocket. NOTHING has revolutionized the market since and probably won't for quite some time. I know tech analysts are all over AR/VR but until it's less conspicuous I don't see it becoming mainstream. The masses aren't going to wear these clunky goggles on their faces. I think that's one reason Apple targeted the wrist. They saw how stupid Google Glass wearers looked. And even Google is now rebooting Glass to business where it probably should have been targeted all along.
iTunes the concept remains valid, they just need to stop dicking around with the UI. Why can’t I resize my artwork? I went to the trouble of finding artwork that would look good on retina displays for a REASON. I’d like to see it bigger on my Macs, too. Why isn’t there a UI for lyrics in iOS (anymore) or OS X?
Why is Music in iOS so horrible? Some of us have local libraries, Apple. Some of us don’t care to live in your fantasy world where everything is downloaded on demand. I don’t care what was recently added. Don’t force me to see it. And on that point, why isn’t there setting parity between iOS and OS X across the board?
Oh, know what would be nice? For the alarms we set in iOS to go off in OS X on synced computers. “Hey, Siri, remind me to [whatever] in [amount of time],” and then I’m upstairs away from my phone and boom, I’m notified on my laptop, too.
Say what you want about better lightning audio quality, ditching the 3.5 headphone connector would be marketing suicide. People like their headphones and sometimes spend a lot of money on them. Very often from Beats. It will be seen as a negative, not a cool new feature. Has to be a false rumor.
I'd really rather see SIGNIFICANT movements in ApplePay, CarPlay, and AppleTV. And Apple hitting the ball out of the park with its Enterprise solutions.
Everything mentioned here seems incremental at best.
Yeah well I'm just calling it as I see it. The rMB wasn't introduced to be killed a year later and if the MBA was hanging around long term it would have gone retina and got the new trackpads. Once you throw a retina screen into the Air what's the point of the 13" Pro? The way I see it, the Pros will get closer to the Airs in terms of weight and thickness and the rMB will become more powerful and the price will come down. Once that happens Apple can kill the Air line, or leave one of them around just for educational purchases. I'm not convinced the rMB will gain a second port though. Yes we know what happened with the MBA but considering that happened yet Apple still chose to release the rMB with one port tells me they want it to be a wireless machine as much as possible. Also if the Pros do become lighter then the choice for those who need more ports will be easy.
This is pretty much how I see it too, MBP gets more like MBA size/weight, renders MBA redundant, rMB is the new "Air" line (thin, light weight, wireless exactly as you say). What wouldn't surprise me a bit, then, is that they release a new "Air" line and it becomes the first machines to sport an A-series chip, but it doesn't run OS X, it runs a non-touch version of iOS. They don't have to displace Intel in their current line of Intel-based hardware, just make iOS more sophisticated (as they are doing each year) so it can handle non-touch input (think: tvOS as first, rudimentary non-touch iOS version) and start rolling out new lines with non-touch iOS and A-series chips and see where it takes them. This is the game changer with which they could surprise us at WWDC.
iTunes the concept remains valid, they just need to stop dicking around with the UI.
I expect Apple to dismantle iTunes in different components:
iPhone and iPad apps to be relocated to where they belong, the App store.
Music to find its way into a new dedicated Apple Music desktop app.
Movies and Video content to get their own dedicated Apple TV desktop app?
Beats and radio to get their own desktop livestation app.
Books, iTunes University, etc. to follow the same pattern as described above.
This is the year of iOS10 (iOSX). It'd be great to have iTunes rise from his ashes - like a phoenix - into a rainbow of *magical* dedicated OSX desktop apps that match their mobile optimised iOSX apps.
EDIT: If you worry about the Windows users using iTunes. They should do their purchases on iCloud.com (which should actually be moved to Apple.com) or download the seperate desktop apps from the app store to their Windows machine. Another challenge for the Hairforce team.
Comments
It it appears that the smalles the 3.5mm jack has ever been is about 3.92mm meaning the enclosure surrounding the opening is about .25mm around. Now the slimmest enclosure appears to be around 5.38mm in the iPod Nano, which suggests about .5-7mm minimum case thickness on the top or bottom. So 5mm as you suggest is likely the threshold Apple will have to break before they will need to actually worry about the thickness of the headphone connector. So that's why I've never really put a lot of stock in that being the main reason for eliminating the headphone jack. However, the cubic volume that jack hardware occupies is around 184 cubic mm (3.5x3.5x15), and that's a lot of space in such a small device. Switching to the patented "D" connector reduces that somewhat, but still requires over 15mm of depth to accommodate the 4 conductor plug, and doesn't really give Apple much more room, other than thickness -- which as you point out is not likely to approach the 5mm threshold for a couple of years yet.
So as I suggested earlier, the effort to remove the jack at this point is likely to reclaim internal space, in order to spread out internal components so they can make the device thinner, or accommodate a larger capacity battery, or new technologies. The bonus, of course is that they get to increase their licensing of Lightning connectors, and profit from the sales of their own audio equipment, as well as continue to lock customers into their proprietary ecosystem.
Not sure what the hell people are expecting.
By your measure, the Iphone would only be a game changer by the release of the 3GS.
it seemed to have a lot of interest this holiday season. For a gen1 product, it is doing fantastic. Gen 2 could sell 30M units though and the trolls will still call it a failure since it isn't as big as iPhone.
Apple is the best at ignoring the noise of the media, analysts, and f**king trolls like sog35. Apple, in 2016, just keep being the company that created the successes in the first place.
The MBA on the other hand, even in its current form factor is more than capable of holding its own against the latest skylake ultrabooks that have been available for three months or so now, it just needs a better screen, the same skylake chip as its competitors (i5-6200U) and double the RAM. Doesn't have to be retina, FHD would do and in fact for battery life might be preferable.
I could see apple adding a second USB-C or Lightning port to the second gen MB, but that's all. Expect it to get a lot more powerful in the next 18 months and become Apple's small, light and sexy laptop.
The iPhone revolutionised the market the second it was previewed.
Game changer like what?
Kind of unfair comparison IMO. The iPhone was the internet in your pocket. NOTHING has revolutionized the market since and probably won't for quite some time. I know tech analysts are all over AR/VR but until it's less conspicuous I don't see it becoming mainstream. The masses aren't going to wear these clunky goggles on their faces. I think that's one reason Apple targeted the wrist. They saw how stupid Google Glass wearers looked. And even Google is now rebooting Glass to business where it probably should have been targeted all along.
Until that happens and is bought and paid for, I don't really care about anything else Apple wants to sell.
Here's hoping for:
A 12 inch Macbook Pro
A pencil compatible iPad Air
Looking forward to:
watch 2
watchOS 3
Apple Music 2
the end of iTunes
Why is Music in iOS so horrible? Some of us have local libraries, Apple. Some of us don’t care to live in your fantasy world where everything is downloaded on demand. I don’t care what was recently added. Don’t force me to see it. And on that point, why isn’t there setting parity between iOS and OS X across the board?
Oh, know what would be nice? For the alarms we set in iOS to go off in OS X on synced computers. “Hey, Siri, remind me to [whatever] in [amount of time],” and then I’m upstairs away from my phone and boom, I’m notified on my laptop, too.
Everything mentioned here seems incremental at best.
This is the year of iOS10 (iOSX). It'd be great to have iTunes rise from his ashes - like a phoenix - into a rainbow of *magical* dedicated OSX desktop apps that match their mobile optimised iOSX apps.
EDIT: If you worry about the Windows users using iTunes. They should do their purchases on iCloud.com (which should actually be moved to Apple.com) or download the seperate desktop apps from the app store to their Windows machine. Another challenge for the Hairforce team.