Why would a mobile phone manufacturer have to cancel 3. 5 mm of earring? The answer is extremely simple, not because it is waterproof, light, space-saving, but because the real reason is that wireless bluetooth headphones are more expensive than cable。
Once upon a time, 3. 5 mm earholes were the greatest “democratic facility” in the scientific and technological community. It has no brand, no dignity, no age. You pick up a pair of sam hayeser 10 years ago and plug in the latest cell phone, and you still have the most exciting music. It's a superb elegance to plug in。
However, starting with the sentence “courage” in 2016 for iphone 7, the hole was sentenced to death. The reason given by the manufacturer is great: waterproof, light, larger batteries. All excuses. If it was waterproof, sony and samsung had already managed ip68 while keeping headphone holes; if it was light, now the cell phone was thicker, and the camera model was like a volcano。
There's only one reason: they want to sell you a couple hundred thousand bluetooth headset. It's a well-designed “creating demand”. First, it creates “no hole” anxiety and then sells “free” antidotes at high prices。
This issue tells us how capital built a hundreds of billions of dollars-a-year of wireless headset empire by eliminating a free hole。
The 3. 5 mm interface, born in the nineteenth century, is a relic of the age of analogue signals and one of the longest and most common interface standards in human history。
It is free, stable, sound intact and without delay. It's perfect for consumers, but it's a hard-on for the technocrats who want to build an “ecological closure”. Because it blocked the financial path of tws' real wireless stereophones。
The manufacturer's favorite excuse is “internal space indigence”. They claim that the headset holes were removed in order to plug in larger batteries or for linear motors。
But this is not going to work. The well-known technology blogger, who had deciphered the iphone 7, found that the location of the original earring hole did place a more complex motor, but also inserted a “plastic block”. Furthermore, the late samsung s10, the mir 16s and so on, while retaining the 3. 5 mm interface, were able to retain large batteries, good hands and top-level waterproofing. Even the present medium- and low-end kiosks retain headphone holes. Is the inside space of a thousand dollars more than the flagship
It is clear that the flagships removed the headset holes, not because they “can't” but because they “don't want to”. Because the people who buy flagship aircraft are consumers, they are potential customers of airpods and galaxy buds; those who buy thousands of dollars may only use $9. 9 of wired headphones to cut them。
In 2016, apple removed the headset and released the first generation of airpods. It's a textbook-like business closed-up for "making pains -- addressing pains."。
Without the removal of headphone holes, airpods, a “disposable” selling price of $1288, would hardly be available in a short time. And you'll think, "i've got wires that work well, why buy more than a thousand things that need to be recharged?" but when the headset hole is gone and the switch is ugly and troublesome, airpods' kind of "open and ready" grace becomes instant demand。
Airpods is the fastest growing product line in apple history. In just a few years, airpods received more than $20 billion annually. This is equivalent to even exceeding the annual income of the entire company, mi, spotify or x. If the free 3. 5 mm hole was retained, the $20 billion business would no longer exist。
Andre's looking red. Chinese, mi, oppo, vivo. They cut off the headsets, not to pay tribute to apples, but to sell their own tws headsets. Now, the mobile phone release will be a “parts-and-parts delivery” conference. Cell phones don't make money, make friends; headphones are very profitable。
The 3. 5 mm interface transmits analogue signals. This means that the sound decoded and amplified are done inside the cell phone. Cell phones are responsible for completing the work and headphones for sound only. This is a “de-centreization” standard for which no one receives a pass fee。
However, after removing the earring, the audio output became the lightning or usb c interface, transmitting a digital signal. This means that the decoded task has been transferred to the headphone or trans-wire end. This gives the manufacturer considerable control。
You want to make a lightning headset on an iphone? I'm sorry, you have to buy apple mfi authentication chip。
Each earpiece is sold with a “head tax” on apples. You want to make a type c headphone? The digitalization of the interface allows for the conversion of audio components from “general parts” to “exclusive ecology”. The manufacturer succeeded in cutting a piece of cake off every song listener。
A good set of wired headphones can be used for 10, 20 or even more years, provided they are properly maintained. It is a “consumer of durable consumption”。
It has batteries. Lithium batteries usually have only 2 to 3 years of life. Once the battery decays, the headphones are gone. It is also almost impossible to repair or replace batteries because of their high integration. This means that your headphones have become "fast-out." you have to pay for a new set every two or three years。
By eliminating the 3. 5 mm interface and imposing the spread of the bluetooth headset, manufacturers have succeeded in turning the audio market from a “send” to a “subscribe business”. You must not only buy a mobile phone, but also pay a “cyclical rent” for your hearing experience。
What hurts the feveriest is the sound compromise。
Bluetooth transmission is damaging. Even if the current ldac, aptx losles technology blows again, it is still limited to bandwidth and stability and cannot be compared to that physical copper line. Moreover, the volume of the tws headset limits its unit size and thrust. The bluetooth headset you bought for $2,000, which is pure, probably won't hit 500 bucks of wired hifi headset。
But the public is numb. Under a “wireless” sugar jacket shell, the vast majority of the population was downgraded by “hearing”. We got free, lost the authenticity. Even today's young people may not know anything about “no-lose”, and they think that the condensed sound of blue teeth is the music。
In the past, manufacturers like vivo, lg used to call “hifi phone”, with a top-level dac chip, with a 3. 5 mm interface and a huge push. But they're all dead or marginalized。
Because in this fast-paced era, “facilitation” always triumphs over “quality”. Most people listen to songs in stream media, which is a compressed sound source. In the metro environment, noise reduction is more important than sound. And the noise is precisely the strength of the tws headset。
So the 3. 5 mm interface became the tears of the times. It exists only in two types of equipment: an extremely cheap old-age machine, a low-end machine, because blue-tooth headphones are too expensive for them; and a very professional hifi player, sony xperia, for the last burner. The largest mainstream market in the middle has been completely swallowed up by bluetooth。
Why would a cell phone manufacturer have to cancel 3. 5 mm of ear holes? It has blocked the windfall of accessories, the control of digital copyrights and the planning cycle of end-of-life。
Capital dislikes “universal” and “free”, and capital prefers “exclusive” and “closed”. And when you get used to airpods' lightweight, and you get used to the three-year-old switch of headsets, you become a digital slave to the wireless empire。
Now, we can only pay in bluetooth pairs。
