Quick Takes: 'Why Hasn't Samsung Ditched the Headphone Jack Yet?'

In addition to our standalone articles covering the latest Apple news and rumors at MacRumors, this Quick Takes column provides a bite-sized recap of other headlines about Apple and its competitors on weekdays.

galaxy s9 headphone jack

Wednesday, March 14

- Why hasn't Samsung ditched the headphone jack yet? Daring Fireball's John Gruber remains convinced that headphone jacks are going the way of the floppy drive, but he explains why Samsung might not be ready to ditch the 3.5mm port yet, as Apple did with the iPhone 7 a few years ago.

Samsung is more of a "do what the customer is asking for" company; Apple is a "figure out what they’re going to want" company. Samsung’s customers aren't asking for the headphone jack to be dropped, so the path of least resistance is to just keep the jack. But looking at what's available on the market, a big problem facing Samsung (and the rest of the Android world) is that the USB-C headphone market is a mess — and expensive to boot. "No-name brand headphones at high prices" is a hard sell.

Commentary: Apple arguably has an advantage in this space thanks to its custom W1 chip, which provides a quick and seamless connection between Apple devices and its wireless headphones like AirPods and BeatsX.

- Dutch bank hints that Apple Pay could launch in the Netherlands next week: Dutch mobile bank bunq was recently added to the list of Apple Pay participating banks in Italy. When contacted by the Dutch blog iCulture.nl about the possibility of Apple Pay launching in the Netherlands, the bank said it could not share any details before a press conference it is holding March 20.

Commentary: During its earnings calls, Apple usually mentions a list of countries where Apple Pay is coming soon, and the Netherlands hasn't been one of them. If this rumor proves true, however, hopefully it signals a wider expansion of Apple Pay to other European countries like Germany and Poland.

- Amazon considered buying Texture before Apple deal: "Next Issue Media LLC, owner of Texture, hired investment bank Moelis & Co. in the past year to advise on a sale process, said the person."

Commentary: Amazon already operates a Texture-like service called Kindle Unlimited, which provides subscribers with access to over one million e-book titles, thousands of audiobooks, and select magazines on Kindle Fire, iOS, or Android smartphones and tablets for $9.99 per month.

kindle unlimited
- Apple details Intelligent Tracking Prevention 1.1: All partitioned cookies are treated as session cookies and are not persisted to disk. Domains with a pending purge will not be able to set new cookies and their existing cookies are not sent in requests. These updates are available in Safari 11.1 on iOS 11.3 beta and macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 beta, as well as in Safari Technology Preview.

Commentary: Intelligent Tracking Prevention is a Safari privacy feature which detects domains that have the ability to track the user cross-site and either partitions or purges the associated website data. The feature is designed to stop companies from invasively tracking customer web browsing habits across websites.

For more Apple news and rumors coverage, visit our Front Page, Mac Blog, and iOS Blog. Also visit our forums to join in the discussion.

Popular Stories

Apple CarPlay Ultra instrument cluster themes 01

Apple's 'CarPlay Ultra' Experience Now Available

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:07 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its next-generation CarPlay experience, now dubbed "CarPlay Ultra" begins rolling out today, starting with Aston Martin vehicles. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. CarPlay Ultra is now available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the U.S. and Canada. It will also be available for existing models that feature the brand's next-generation ...
Apple CarPlay Ultra instrument cluster themes 01

Apple's CarPlay Ultra Is Here – Does Your iPhone Support It?

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:17 am PDT by
Apple's recently announced CarPlay Ultra promises a deeply integrated in-car experience, but not all iPhone users will be able to take advantage of the new feature. According to Apple's press release, CarPlay Ultra requires an iPhone 12 or later running iOS 18.5 or later. This means if you're using an iPhone 11, iPhone XR, or any older model, you'll need to upgrade your device to access...
CarPlay Ultra Climate Controls

Apple Says These Vehicle Brands Plan to Offer All-New CarPlay Ultra

Thursday May 15, 2025 8:13 am PDT by
Apple today announced the launch of CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. CarPlay Ultra features deep integration with a vehicle's instrument cluster and systems, built-in Radio and Climate apps, customizable widgets, and more. The interface is tailored to each vehicle model and automaker's identity, and drivers can also adjust...
iPhone 12 Made in India

Trump Tells Tim Cook to Stop Building iPhones in India

Thursday May 15, 2025 2:21 am PDT by
President Donald Trump has asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to halt the company's manufacturing expansion in India, in a potential disruption of Apple's plan to shift iPhone production away from China. "I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday," Trump said during his state visit to Qatar, according to Bloomberg. "He is building all over India." "They [India] have offered us a deal where...
apple music

Apple Music Gets New Transfer Tool to Make Switching From Spotify Easier

Wednesday May 14, 2025 5:17 pm PDT by
Apple this week introduced a new feature designed to allow prospective Apple Music users to import their saved music and playlists from third-party music services to Apple Music. The feature is either in an expanded testing phase or it has started rolling out, and it is available in Australia and New Zealand according to an Apple Support document. Signs of the transfer option first surfaced...
maxresdefault

Here's the First Real-World Look at Apple's CarPlay Ultra

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:52 am PDT by
The first videos of Apple's CarPlay Ultra experience are now available, providing a never-before-seen look at the long-anticipated iPhone-linked infotainment software. British automaker Aston Martin today shared the first video of Apple's CarPlay Ultra experience in-action, followed by a detailed walk-through of the CarPlay Ultra system on Top Gear's YouTube channel, which provides the...
vision pro video recording

WSJ: Some Apple Vision Pro Buyers 'Feel Total Regret'

Friday May 16, 2025 7:43 am PDT by
Apple's Vision Pro headset has left many early adopters expressing dissatisfaction over its weight, limited use cases, and sparse software ecosystem, according to a new article from The Wall Street Journal. In the year following the device's launch, user feedback suggests that it has failed to meet expectations for comfort, software support, and social acceptance. In interviews conducted by T...

Top Rated Comments

ericgtr12 Avatar
94 months ago
They haven't abandoned the headphone jack because it's still useful to most people who don't want to go all in on Apple's proprietary jacks or use an adapter.
Score: 95 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oneMadRssn Avatar
94 months ago
Asking a negative is always silly. "Why hasn't Samsung stopped selling TV's yet?" Who knows? Why should it?

Instead, ask the affirmative: "Why should Samsung ditch the headphone jack?" If the best anyone can reasonably come up with is because Apple did it, then there is your answer to the first question.
Score: 77 Votes (Like | Disagree)
krause734 Avatar
94 months ago
Apple dropped the headphone jack to sell you their overpriced bluetooth headphones. Pretty obvious.
Score: 72 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mistasopz Avatar
94 months ago
Samsung was able to keep the headphone jack still provide water resistance. Allowing the customer to use both wired and non-wired solutions is a big plus for me. If you could get a new iPhone with the headphone jack I think it would be better, even if it was a fraction of a millimeter thicker.
Score: 53 Votes (Like | Disagree)
busyscott Avatar
94 months ago
Ugh, Apple is infuriatingly arrogant in this area. Them ditching the headphone jack and every connector on the MacBook Pro and replacing it with a still rarely used USB-C isn’t like their moves in the past.

When they ditched the optical drive I thought, “I haven’t used a disc in 3 months, this makes sense.”

Still to this day I find myself wishing for a headphone jack 3-5 times a week. I also have a MacBook Pro with usb c and have to use an adapter 2-4 times a DAY.

They don’t even ship usb C with iPhones for goodness sakes.
Score: 46 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Soccertess Avatar
94 months ago
Not sure Apple is "figuring out" what customers want.

Who in the world wants one type of port on laptops, who wants to carry around dongles (and be pissed off when you don't have one with you), who wants only one port on a laptop, who wants siri to be SO crappy, who wants homepod to be limited to one ecosystem, who wants a mac pro that isn't updated in three years, and who wants a golden watch that is useless in 8 months (maybe all of us if we have 10k to burn a year!

There is a pattern, and it's all product updates under Tim Cook. Personally, I would like a 3.5MM. Apple's dongles are flimsy and super week, and they made the transition for customers extra hard.

So I would love a 3.5mm back but I'm not too stuck on it. The true problem is cook, that guy needs to go!
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)