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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion oped editorial

EDITORIAL: The end of Apple’s innovation dynasty

The most recent iPhone release leaves a lot to be 
desired — namely, from the headphone jack.

That’s right, the iPhone 7 will not have a traditional headphone jack. Instead, Apple opted to implement something none of us needed or wanted: wireless headphones called AirPods.

Despite the iPhone 7’s handful of other new features — water resistance, home button vibrations and yet another camera upgrade — Apple has proven they are grasping at straws to maintain their status as leading innovators in the tech industry.

This year may be the last year they find themselves in first place. Most of those Apple 
caters to already own smartphones and do not want to pay more for a newer model with fewer features than the one they already have has.

They especially would not be ready to move to a new phone if that new phone had as few design updates as the iPhone 7 has. The phone looks remarkably similar to the iPhones 5 and 6 with the only really new feature being a new color option.

By the way, the new color option is jet black — just another shinier, extra-plus-plus version of the existing black.

It is true that Apple has a rather loyal fan base, but they may be relying on that a bit too much with this release. We feel there is just not enough change — save the headphone debacle – from the previous iPhones to justify purchasing the new one.

And when the most noticeable change is a negative one, Apple will certainly have a hard time creating excitement in buyers.

Of course, they anticipated a possible backlash about the jackless phone and the $159 AirPods. They developed a system to keep traditional headphones users happy.

Fear not. You can still connect your phone to your car speakers via an auxiliary cord. As long as you have the adapter handy and you weren’t planning on charging your phone at the same time.

Apple will include traditional headphones with a Lightning plug and an adapter for the Lightning port that can be used on wired headphones with an auxiliary 
connector.

Which, honestly, seems like doing a lot of gadget-
inventing just to make 
something as unnecessary as wireless ear buds work.

But that being said, who knows, maybe we are wrong about the iPhone 7 being a move in the wrong direction.

Apple has proven before they can create new trends that originally seem like inconveniences. The Lightning cable charger was upsetting to users at first but has eventually become a commonly accepted feature.

We could be looking at a future of walking around campus with little white devices sticking out of everyone’s ears.

Yet, looking forward from where we are now with all the hate for the new design, it doesn’t feel like this model will be a win for 
Apple.

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