I can tell you one thing that's inaccurate, and that is that Samsung can license lightning for use on its phones. Apple does not license the female port, which is way battery case makers have to use micro USB.
That's clearly not true. Apple has already licensed female Lightning ports for use with game controllers, including the SteelSeries Nimbus.
One example only makes it partly true. It doesn't mean phone makers are allowed to license it.
Nice job of reasoning, but based on a flawed premise. The 3.5 mm plug and jack both represent a tremendous waste of space and material.
Look at them objectively in terms of current manufacturing capabilities. There are only four contacts, yet you are using many square mms to make those temporary contacts. (I forget how many; the figure is out there.)
The Lightning port and plug seem to handle 19 contacts while using much less space.
From an engineering point of view, there is absolutely no reason to tolerate the waste and sloppiness of the ancient, round plug-and-jack model. In its time it was a miniaturization (based of new 1960s manufacturing standards) of the giant "phone plug" of the late 1800s. Now its run is over because the manufacturing can be exponentially finer.
Your resort to an argument that this is a money grab bears revising. Apple's designers are risking their reputations and public goodwill by following principles to their logical end. It may even cost Apple sales until people get the idea and the problems you foresee shake out.
Screw the "tremendous waste of space", I want to have a generic audio output on all my devices. I want to fly commercial and "Jack-in" to any audio source around me. I want to do this and charge at the same time. What a joke. There are also many current devices, external MIC's, wind meters, credit card readers, etc that use this port. I'm a Bluetooth power user and can say it's good but not perfect and not something I want to have to use at all times. Lightning specific headphones will be a ripoff. Sadly I'll be departing from iPhones after my upgrade contract runs out, as will my family. As others have said, try innovating better battery life instead of stripping something as ubiquitous as the headphone jack. There's always a time when a cheap-ass set of headphones or audio out jack really comes in handy. Talk about ill will, this is the topper.
The headphone jacks time has not yet come, and I honestly hope Apple pays a price for this arrogant and stupid move.
Oh, and one more thing. Maintenance and being green. As a wireless headset power user, let me warn all who haven't yet gone this route. As you collect these great wireless gadgets, not only will you lose them more often, they will die. I find that if they aren't kept charged, perhaps forgotten in a drawer or bag, they tend to quietly kill their non-replaceable batteries and are now landfill. Also many just die after about a year. Be prepared to pop about $60-120 each time.
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Screw the "tremendous waste of space", I want to have a generic audio output on all my devices. I want to fly commercial and "Jack-in" to any audio source around me. I want to do this and charge at the same time. What a joke. There are also many current devices, external MIC's, wind meters, credit card readers, etc that use this port. I'm a Bluetooth power user and can say it's good but not perfect and not something I want to have to use at all times. Lightning specific headphones will be a ripoff. Sadly I'll be departing from iPhones after my upgrade contract runs out, as will my family. As others have said, try innovating better battery life instead of stripping something as ubiquitous as the headphone jack. There's always a time when a cheap-ass set of headphones or audio out jack really comes in handy. Talk about ill will, this is the topper.
The headphone jacks time has not yet come, and I honestly hope Apple pays a price for this arrogant and stupid move.
Oh, and one more thing. Maintenance and being green. As a wireless headset power user, let me warn all who haven't yet gone this route. As you collect these great wireless gadgets, not only will you lose them more often, they will die. I find that if they aren't kept charged, perhaps forgotten in a drawer or bag, they tend to quietly kill their non-replaceable batteries and are now landfill. Also many just die after about a year. Be prepared to pop about $60-120 each time.