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Plugged In: The Revival of the Headphone Jack
Remember the headphone jack? That little port that Apple got rid of on the iPhone 7 that made all of the internet phone reviewers seethe with anger at the audacity of Apple to remove something that was a standard issue on all phones forever. Like most things that Apple does though, the competition went ahead and followed the lead of the company and slowly removed the port from their high end phones as well. Really the only company that seems to be left fighting the good fight to keep the headphone jack is LG in the flagship space. It has become something of a foregone conclusion that the port is soon to become extinct. But there seems to be something of a shift.
It has long been acknowledged that the high end smartphone market in the United States is a two horse race. Samsung and Apple are the only players in this game, and everyone else is basically fighting for crumbs. The pressure is on the lower players in the space to make impactful design and pricing decisions to stay relevant as a viable alternative to the two giants of the industry. For a few years this has meant messing with aspect ratios, quirky design features, and the like. It would appear that the new feature for differentiation is the return of the headphone jack as phones such as the LG V60, Sony Xperia 1 Mark 2, and now the Motorola Edge+ all have the iconic port. Could the headphone jack be…
