Don’t get me wrong, I love apple products. First they get rid of the HP port, now they are losing the dongle. Are they trying to alienate me? I’d give up my iphone before I give up my headphones…by the way, I am a wired kind of guy. Love my cables. They are a part of the gear as much as anything else…
I’m sure they are just trying to get you to buy their AirPods and Beats. They need to come up with a lossless wireless solution.
Pretty soon they are going to just give you the chip for the phone and you’ll have to buy the phone housing, headphone dongle and everything separately.
Just for the pleasure of the “Apple experience”.
I have an iPhone X, and one of the main reasons I stuck with the line after the 6s (When they got rid of the headphone jack) was because of the included adapter. It is a bit of a hassle to use and I’ve often found myself without one when I needed it.
I think it is a terrible idea to take that accessory away, even though it is relatively inexpensive to buy on its own. The average user (unless they have previously purchased an iPhone 7-X) will not have this piece handy. It will move the broader audience more towards wireless.
For me, I got a Fiio x5 in order to steer clear of the problems that are now plaguing the smartphone market. Sounds like most manufacturers are going wireless…
And I am sure that’s part of their strategy.
Personally I don’t like wireless, but the technology has much room for improvement. I hope Apple can be a leader in that field. It’s going to be interesting.
The adaptor is just $9. I just bought a 6S Plus because it still has a jack but I’ve tried the adaptor. It’s cheap and it’s readily available at retailers who carry Apple products ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Change is guaranteed.
“Analysts”. I wish I could be paid large amounts of money to write official-sounding click-bait.
Guess the analysts were right in this case. 
I work in cellular retail and I imagine… the retailers and Apple both pushed for this
Though to be honest for the average apple sheeple the Air Pods are quite nice