From my POV, I’m seeing a LOT of wireless ear buds hitting the market. I’m thinking the need for quality speakers on a smartphone won’t be as crucial moving forward. Wireless will become much more practical & mobile, that people will be able to plug unobtrusive buds into their ears anywhere, & for the most part, have little need for speakers.
Samsung will most likely ditch the headphone jack in 2020, which will push wireless buds development ever further. It’s definitely the future of listening to media/phone calls on your smartphone.
I would hope not. I haven't found a wireless solution that I liked. The Shure SE535 wired model sounds better than the $50 USD more expensive bluetooth version.
I won't claim a $40 pair of in-ear wired buds sound better than the SE535 wireless/bluetooth model, but the reality is that at the $90-200 range, a wired pair sounds better. Problem is, even with the highest bluetooth version, your audio is still very compressed and if you're the type to carry FLAC files on your phone, then you're getting less while wireless.
Strange Parts did a video on bringing back the iPhone headphone jack. I recommend watching it.
The reason the jack has been around for decades and decades is because nothing better has ever come along in a similar form factor while taking up the least amount of space in a small device. Apple, the company that somehow came up with a method to stack boards in a phone to cram more stuff in can't fit a small chip?
Samsung, in theory, could make a phone with 12 TB worth of flash chips on multiple boards inside a device body, and probably still find room for a chip and port. With phones getting bigger and bigger, I don't buy the space being an issue excuse.
[doublepost=1549794816][/doublepost]The main reason Apple removed the jack was because they had developed a bluetooth product to replace the use of the jack. The companies that copied Apple do not. And I don't believe Samsung has one either. Apple had a product that was ready to go and became another income stream for them. Apple removed the headphone jack and chip/hardware, saved a few pennies on each device, while shipping out a $150 addition for those who wanted to keep their tunes to themselves.
There's rumors of Samsung having developed wireless buds, but that doesn't equate to them removing them in the S11. In fact, that would turn fans of the Galaxy S series away. If I've already spent hundreds of dollars on high end buds, why the hell would I want to spend another several hundred on a wireless pair that is about 80-90% the quality of the wired device?
I'll just keep using the same phone until they bring it back or hop on over to another flagship that kept the port.
[doublepost=1549795496][/doublepost]Whoops. Forgot about Beats bluetooth headphones. Or that Samsung owns Harman Kardon, who have developed bluetooth headphones. Same goes for JBL. Except the low range stuff sounds terrible, and you'll be spending $150-250 before you can get something that's somewhat close to wired.
And, don't forget, these aren't a one time purchase. If you put enough charge cycles on these wireless devices, they will need to be replaced.
For Apple, it was the difference between $30 headphones that users might replace 0-1 times in 3 years of ownership over people who'll probably replace AirPods several times due to bad batteries and being out of warranty or losing one of the pair.
Apple could in theory release AirPods 4 two years from now and make iPhone XS the bare minimum iPhone required to be able to use them. Thus creating another round of upgrades to users' phones.
Like I said, it was done for another revenue stream. There was no non-monetary logic involved here.
