It isn’t generally realised that the thinness of your new iPhone is limited by one ancient piece of technology that is long past its sell-by date. The culprit is the headphone jack, once seen as a teeny connector but now looking pretty enormous against modern devices. It’s a throw back to the days when you needed Olympian muscles to heft your cellphone.
The good news is that Apple is paving the way for even thinner phones. The company has been granted a patent for scaled-down 3.5mm and 2.5mm headphone jacks. The design features a D-shape with one flat edge which acts as a key to ensure correct insertion. Crucially, it is both shallower and shorter than the existing layout, thus opening new opportunities for device miniaturisation.
According to AppleInsider (see the full story here), one option open to Apple would be to use the Lightning socket for connecting headphones but that would preclude simultaneous charging. It is more than likely, however, that Apple is hoping that the new slimmer headphone jack will become an industry standard.