Everyone knows how Apple manipulates its loyal consumers. My calculus class in high school covered the math behind when Apple decides to release a new iPhone (spoiler alert: it depends on how much money they can make off of you). We were shocked when our disc drive was taken away. We have dealt with the trials and tribulations of trying to find a friend to borrow a charger from, an experience perfectly encapsulated in this video.
This has all lead us to now. The removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7.
Greg Joswiak, Apple vice president, said “The audio connector is more than 100 years old. It had its last big innovation about 50 years ago. You know what that was? They made it smaller. It hasn’t been touched since then. It’s a dinosaur. It’s time to move on.”
Apple’s marketing chief, Phil Schiller said “It really comes down to one word: courage. To do something new that betters all of us.”
While Apple executives continue to frame themselves as visionaries, they are met by outcries of Apple users who feel scammed every time a new product is released.
In fairness to Apple, they have learned from their past mistakes and will be putting a headphone adapter in every iPhone 7 box. But that doesn’t mean consumers aren’t infuriated by the change.
Article after article has come out begging Apple to keep the headphone jack, and it’s nearly impossible to avoid the complaints while asking to borrow a friend’s charger or sharing a pair of headphones. And regardless of the future benefits of this emerging technology, the current wireless earbuds they're rolling out are comically small and easy to lose.
With all of the outrage around the changes in Apple products, why do the consumers remain so loyal?
Die-hard iPhone users and their Android-using counterparts argue for hours about which product has more merit. Likewise, PC and Mac users seem to be constantly at odds. But regardless of which products are better, there is one thing Apple sells that gives it the competitive edge. The Apple ecosystem.
The Apple ecosystem refers to how simple it is to move between one Apple device and the other. Whether it’s accepting a call from the iPhone on a Mac, using the Cloud to share pictures across multiple platforms, or using Family Share so the whole family can listen to the same music, Apple has the upper hand in making it more enticing to own all of its products.
The more the consumer stays loyal to Apple products, the more benefits they will receive.
This reigns true not only across platforms but across other users' Apple devices. There was a point in high school where I had a small group of friends became much closer when we were all able to easily use the group message feature on our iPhones. My sister and I share music by allowing our computers to pick up each others' iTunes libraries.
Apple users stick with Apple above all else because there is nothing comparable on the market that so seamlessly blends into their lives. Apple users are stuck regardless of whether they dislike the changes because there is nowhere else to go that will offer that simplicity.
Despite the obvious upper hand Apple has over its consumers, executives will continue to hide behind the need for shaping the future technology. Some of them might even believe the story they’re spinning.
Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, pointed out that removing the headphone jack has allowed for the other innovations present in the iPhone 7.
While engineers may truthfully see the practicality of removing the headphone jack, it is blatantly obvious that Apple is just taking more money out of the pockets of its consumers.
Apple stands to gain not only from people having to purchase new headphones or adapters for future devices. Beats, the number one Bluetooth headphone company, is owned by Apple.
Capitalizing on an already growing Bluetooth headphone market is a cheap trick. While the truth of innovation may underlie the change, it’s no mistake that Apple made the change when Bluetooth headphones are selling at disproportionately high margins. It’s no mistake that Apple is spinning a story to try to make themselves look like heroes.
