Anuj Tiwari Last updated on: 11/28/2015, Permalink

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Apple is planning to drop the headphone jack with the upcoming iPhone 7, reports Macotakara.
Apple seems to plan removing the headset jack from the next iPhone 7, according to a reliable source. Screen shape such as radius will be kept, however, it will very likely be more than 1 mm thinner than the current model.
The company is likely looking to make its iPhone even thinner but the standard 3.5mm headphone jack limits the device from getting any smaller. The problem can be circumvented by getting rid of the port and equipping its EarPods with a Lightning connector instead of a regular headphone connector. 
Supplied Ear Pods will equip a Lightning connector, which means a DA (Digital to Analog) converter is required. The DA will be built in the Lightning connector without sacrificing the size, according to the source.
Apple may rely on third party manufacturers to produce a headset to Lightning converter or sell a separate Lightning cable with a DA converter to solve compatibility issues.
For those already using Bluetooth headphones, there would obviously be no issues.

Apple Patents A New Shape For Headphone Jack That Will Anger Everyone

Last year Apple appeared to deliver the death knellto the iPhone jack before going silent, but now it appears to have something far more silly in mind. In its quest to create ever thinner iPhones, iPads and Macs, Apple has obtained a patent to cut the 3.5mm headphone jack and the less common 2.5mm variant down into a slimmer ‘D’ shape.

The Patent (No. 9,142,925) was discovered by AppleInsider and sports all the same functionality as the standard 2.5mm and 3.5mm TRRS (tip, ring, ring, sleeve) connector, plus a flexible inner core to reinforce the reduced structural integrity. In short: it should work just like a normal 3.5mm/2.5mm headphone jack.

Apple D-shape headphone jack patent application. Image credit Apple Insider
But it is totally ludicrous. Let’s look at this rationally for a moment. Where is the real benefit in cutting down the headphone jack?
Should Apple introduce the D-shaped port on devices it would gain maybe an extra millimetre (the benefit comes from the proportional decrease to the internal receptor) but it would simultaneously make billions of pairs of headphones incompatible.

In an era of reversible connectors, Apple would also be making the headphone jack a one way device which is significantly less user friendly. This gives conspiracy theorists a field day. Apple makes the headphone jack a pain to use in order to ease the path to remove it entirely and transition users to the proprietary (thin and reversible) Lightning port. After all Lightning headphones are already on sale.

Apple D-shape headphone jack patent application. Image credit Apple Insider