You can pry my cheap $5 headphones from my cold, dead fingers. No way am I paying $150+ for something I'm likely to lose several times a year.

i am pretty sure it's the end of the headphone jack, IF the wireless headphones work really well. Traditionally Bluetooth headphones have always had a few quirks and annoyances (i still love mine) so if they fixed that i believe that people will see the benefits. It's kind of like the outcry when the very first iPhone did not have a keyboard at all. Only a Touchscreen ? WTF?

Yeah, that would be the case, if it only were not for the dozens of just touchscreen phones before the iPhone came out. IMO, this could be the beginning of the decline of Apple (since smartphones make majority of apples profit)

It's not that there have never been phones without a proprietary headphone jack before right ? But it's the first time a really popular phone does it, similar to when they introduced the first iPhone. Pretty sure in a few months nobody will really care about the missing headphone jack anymore, i mean the only real downside i see is losing the ability to listen with analog headphones and charging at the same time (but there will probably be adapters for that as well)

The original iPhone did not usher in the era of the 2.5 mm audio jack.

That's because it didn't have a 2.5mm audio jack. How can it usher in the era of something it isn't a part of?

I believe that weird Motorola iTunes phone had 2.5mm

I believe the very first batch of the first generation did... I know someone who got one very early on and complained about it.

It did not. You might be thinking of the fact that the headphone jack was recessed in a way that caused many 3.5mm headphone plugs not to fit:

https://www.engadget.com/2007/06/30/iphone-doesnt-work-with-...

Ah, that sounds like a reasonable explanation.