iOS 9.3 beta 1 contains code hinting at big change

Jan 20, 2016 11:00 GMT  ·  By

Rumor has it that Apple is planning a huge change on the upcoming iPhone 7 that would see the company giving up on the traditional 3.5-mm audio jack and instead adopt alternative options, such as wireless headphone support.

And while Apple has never confirmed that such a change is indeed possible, code included in the iOS 9.3 beta 1 suggests that the company is already preparing the operating system for giving up on the audio jack on the upcoming iPhone model.

Twitter user @kyoufujibaya, who also participated in the development of iPhone jailbreak, revealed that this new beta version of iOS might pave the road for a bigger change in the operating system that would support Apple transition from the traditional audio jack to new technologies, such as headphones using the Lightning connector or wireless models.

The final goal, a thinner iPhone

Apple’s plan to remove the audio port is mostly related to the company’s intention of developing a thinner iPhone, so the headphone jack is too big to be included in this redesigned model.

Instead, the company could use the Lightning connector for headphones too, as it’s slimmer and clearly takes up little space under the hood of the iPhone, but at the same time, the company could also offer wireless headphones manufactured by the Beats division.

The latter scenario is more likely to happen because this way Apple could involve Beats more in its product portfolio, while at the same time provide iPhone buyers with premium audio quality straight out of the box.

The iPhone 7 is expected to debut in the summer of 2016, so we’re not very far from the moment we’ll finally find out whether the headphone jack made the cut or not. But until now, all signs point to a demise of the port, so expect all these rumors to be true.