Yeah, Apple even bought Beats and immediately let the brand stagnate literally just so they wouldn't have any competition in the marketing space. That kind of move basically confirms that other moves they did likely had similar rationale.

It's possible that Apple is actually aiming towards their "portless phone" dream, and this death of the jack was just a step. But I'll take it for the "we must employ the closest practice to profiteering as we can in the wireless audio space" aspect it appears to have.

Interesting, I always keep Bluetooth off unless I'm using my BT headphones. Saves battery. I never took privacy into consideration

One positive for me about the included earphones is they are great utility earphones for when I'm mixing/mastering music. They have a pretty flat and even response so it's one of the devices I use to test my music on "regular" sound systems to make sure they sound good on all types of equipment.

Mostly true, yeah. The "AKG" ones that came with my S8 were honestly pretty damn nice though.

I've always been lambasted for this opinion, but I feel the same way about the charging cable and charger.

I do not want yet another 1 metre (if they're even that, most likely 3 foot) USB-C cable that barely reaches from the charger on the floor to the bedside table - and largely precludes actually using the phone while in bed - nor particularly the included charger. So many things need to be plugged in these days that single-output chargers are also basically e-waste.

Of course because some business genius had the idea that making the USB cable 0.9 instead of 1.8m saved them $0.06 per unit shipped, we all got lumped with those useless cables.

Now of course there will always be people for whom it's their first phone (or whatever situation), who do need those accessories. But all that requires is there to be a retail bundle with the now-accessory charger and cable. Preferably that bundle costs the same as the phone with them included does today and you get a token discount for the phone without them, although we all know it would never work that way :(

Fairphone did it too, of all the companies. Shows that the margins on these things are pretty big for Fairphone to do such a thing.

I really doubt this is the primary reason. I think it was multifaceted, but really the people in the business of designing phones were already using Bluetooth exclusively and felt that it was good enough. Some designs probably rushed it as a means to sell more premium headsets (Apple, Samsung), other saw it as removing an unnecessary redundant feature that was more prone to breakage and a waterproofing difficulty (Google). I think it really just came down to the personal preferences of the (affluent) people who were doing the designing, not necessarily a purposeful cash grab. It really was not great since wired headphones were way cheaper than their Bluetooth counterparts. Luckily Bluetooth has gotten much better and less expensive. I think there should be options for both.

That's why I buy the $20 straight from the Chinese factory ones, because fuck 'em

These are the one I have https://www.sony.com/ug/electronics/headband-headphones/wh-ch700n

I had a pair of Sony headphones that could do the same thing!

Sadly, they were bad on both choices, BT's battery didin't last sh*t, and the wired input somehow reduced the volume (like, by a lot).

I never said anything about the headphones. I was referring to the port, which can get gunked up, damaged by water, or all sorts of other stuff. in my many many years of using Bluetooth headphones of all types, I’ve never had a single thing go wrong— and because I am a responsible adult, I’m capable of recharging my batteries.

The era of annoying snags painfully pulling out wired headphones from my ears is a headache I’m very glad to have left behind long ago.

None of those are valid arguments, especially e-waste. It's literally the opposite, fairphone is gaslighting.