Ming-Chi Kuo’s research note obtained by MacRumors confirms the much-circulated rumors of Apple abandoning the headphone jack to improve iPhone 7’s water resistance. Kuo, KGI Securities analyst, is a credible and reliable source when it comes to reporting new of Apple’s products. Today, Kuo released a report speculating on the development of AirPods by Apple to dominate the Bluetooth headphones market.
Despite being discovered by YouTubers, that the iPhone 6s experienced no damage when submerged in water, it was never marketed by Apple as a waterproof device. Kuo claims that water resistance will be a much flaunted feature of iPhone 7 models. Therefore, Apple is getting rid of the 3.5mm headphone jacket to make the smartphone waterproof and replacing it with Lightning EarPods and Lightning adapter.
Since iPhone is Apple’s highest revenue generating product, Kuo reports that Apple is planning on capitalizing on the Bluetooth headphone market by catering to middle and high-end wireless headphone buyers. Along with Beats, Apple is supposedly working on developing a battery efficient, Bluetooth-like communications chip to run wireless earbuds. These earbuds will be designed like the Bragi Dash-style wireless earphones. The earbuds might be called AirPods and are expected to be unveiled at the September 7 Apple media event.
AirPods will be high-end Bluetooth earbuds, sold at a higher price than the Beats headphones. However, AirPods will not ship with the new iPhone 7 models.
Take this news with a grain of salt as Beats make some of the higher end headphones in the market. Hence, claims that Apple is developing AirPods to sell at an even higher price do not make much sense.
We are hours away from the main iPhone 7 launch event. iPhone 7, undoubtedly, will be the star of the event but other products like Apple Watch 2, and new OS updates for iPhones, Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac are expected to be launched as well. Stay tuned to ithinkdiff for comprehensive coverage of the event.
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