Look, I&#x27;m not on some big high-horse about audio quality in the modern era (cough Pono cough), so I really don&#x27;t see any reason to be upset with Apple deciding &quot;thinner&quot; is an improvement by way of ditching support for a widely used industry standard. We&#x27;re talking about consumer electronics, an industry where (subjectively speaking) over-priced, under-performing headphones like Beats command significant status and market share. iDevices are nice-to-have items, and after having several, I can honestly say I care less about upgrading for &#x27;features&#x27; and more about build quality concerns (having various buttons giving out across different models, etc) so I&#x27;m really comfortable viewing Apple products as expensive yet disposable items. <i>Shrug</i><p>Oh, and anybody who is surprised by such a mentality might want to refresh a few historical examples. CD-Rom drives, gone. Final Cut? Turned into consumer-class software. Now they have a high-priced laptop with a single connector which really doesn&#x27;t make sense for live performers and professionals. It&#x27;s kind of how the company does business, so yeah I buy this rumor somewhat.