One of Apple’s defining features is its fearlessness when it comes to creating new products. It’s done this from the moment it created the first Mac PC all the way up to its latest release of the iPhone. Innovation is its greatest strength, but it may also be the company’s weakness.

A recently released leaked report indicates Apple is going to remove headphone jacks from the iPhone 7. If that sounds too wacky to be true, it’s not. The blog that reported this, Macotakara, accurately predicted the dimensions of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus before they were released.

If the report is as spot-on as Macotakara’s last prediction, it’s a decision made in order to make the phones nearly a full millimeter thinner.

It may also be the biggest mistake in the company’s history.

First things first: are you kidding me, Apple? If changing the charger plug-in wasn’t enough, the company is now reportedly considering removing the most common feature in the mobile industry. It’s almost as if Apple is trying to piss off the public. Not only does everyone have headphones, but they are all essentially the same type of headphones.

The 3.5-millimeter headphone jack is as standard an item as there is. It doesn’t matter if you have an iPhone or an Android, your headphones are going to work with either phone. It’s one of the last accessories that can be used regardless of the manufacturer. It’s a beautiful thing, and Apple is reportedly considering destroying it in favor of a thinner phone.

Thin is the current trend in phones right now, so this isn’t a huge surprise, but the company may be overemphasizing the significance of having a slender phone. Sure, thinner may be better, but you know what’s better than having a slimmer phone? Having a phone that is compatible with a product almost everyone has.

I don’t care how thin the phone is, I just want to be able listen to my music without having to buy bluetooth headphones or an adapter.

I also want to be able to charge my phone and listen to the music on it, too. Without a separate port for both the charger and the headphones, only one can occur at one time. If there’s only one, it’s as short-sighted as it gets. As a user, that’s the type of stuff that diminishes the value of the product.

Apple’s PR department is about to have quite the next couple of months trying to fix this mess. Reaction so far hasn’t been kind, and it’s not likely to get any less inflammatory.

In the immediate future, they can spin this one of three ways:

1. The public likes thin, and this gives them thin.
2. We will make adapters so not much will change.
3. You won’t like it at first, but you will get used to it.

They should probably go with option C. There was plenty of displeasure regarding the company’s change in the charger socket nearly three years ago, but that has subsided. Sort of. (I’m still salty.)

Either way, the company has shown that it will make the changes it wants without much regard for the public’s opinion. It is constantly changing the MacBook Pro charger, and this new development is just keeping up with a trend that has been established since the company’s inception in 1976.

The only difference is that this change is more influential than all the rest. Eventually the world needs to move on from the current headphone jack, but this is a move that would only benefit Apple. And it’s curious as to why it is making it.

Yes, the company needs to stay ahead of its competition, but the iPhone is as popular as ever. The product overtook Android phones in sales this year for the first time since 2012. It’s on top, and a transformation of this magnitude could sway people to buy a phone that’s compatible with their current headphones.

If this report is true, and Apple kills the headphone jack, it may very well kill the loyalty of a number of its customers, too.

Paul Sarconi is a junior broadcast and digital journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at pjsarcon@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @paulsarconi.

Published on December 8, 2015 at 7:54 pm