Why Apple bought Beats? Forbes guess...

[Ombligo]

Like most Apple developments, the news emerged from a leak. 9to5Mac has learnt that Apple submitted a specification to its MFi (Made For) licensing program for headphones which connect using the company’s proprietary Lightning port instead of the standard 3.5mm jack. Furthermore all it will take for the Lightning port to start accepting these new headphones is a firmware update.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/...r=yahootix



I can think of nothing that wold make me abandon iPhone/ipod faster than having to buy proprietary headphones.

[BernDog]

Hmm... The headphone port is the tallest port on the phone. Can't really make it any smaller. I could see Apple eliminating it for the cause of thickness and miniaturization. An adapter for non-made-for-apple headphones would be easy enough (god help them if they didn't include one or even a couple), but the licensed ones could simply have lightning at the end. Smaller phones and more simple (cheaper) manufacturing

[OWC Jamie]

I don't know.
The harmon kardon Apple Pro Speakers had pretty good sound, but that oddball minijack was a PITA

[Acer]

Makes sense. Apple has always had a fetish for proprietary ports.

[Blankity Blank]

Ombligo wrote:
Like most Apple developments, the news emerged from a leak. 9to5Mac has learnt that Apple submitted a specification to its MFi (Made For) licensing program for headphones which connect using the company’s proprietary Lightning port instead of the standard 3.5mm jack. Furthermore all it will take for the Lightning port to start accepting these new headphones is a firmware update.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/...r=yahootix



I can think of nothing that wold make me abandon iPhone/ipod faster than having to buy proprietary headphones.

So maybe it just means Apple is considering offering a high end set of earphones that use Thunderbolt in addition to offerings from itself and everybody else that will continue to use the traditional jack?

There isn't really anything signalling Apple is going to throw the baby out with the bathwater by dumping the traditional connector. Rejiggering their entire product line, losing a great chunk of sales in the process, just so they can sell a relative handful of style victim headphones? Doesn't seem very likely.

[sekker]

This would suck, unless Apple offered a waterproof iPhone as a feature bonus.

[eustacetilley]

The Lightning Port, (AKA Thunderbolt), as currently designed, passes digital data back and forth, and supplies power. No Analog signals. Which would mean a new kind of headphone design is needed, one with DACs and amplifiers built in, and since there is far more bandwidth available, why not add a couple of cameras, a couple of Microphones, and maybe a heads-up display.
Which naturally brings us again to the subject of hats:
http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1...sg-1689806



I rather like the sound of a "ThunderBowler".

Eustace

[Filliam H. Muffman]

People still used wired headphones?

[davemchine]

For 99% of people I think wireless would be far more desirable. So I'm with Filliam on this topic.

For the 1% of audiophiles I could see using the lightning port though. Many of the serious listeners use external dacs and headphone amplifiers. So it would be a nice feature for them but I can't see anyone else using it that way.

[Racer X]

So, expensive audiophile quality headphones to listen to heavily compressed digital audio files?

Idiots.