Let's be honest. You seen the adapter? It's not very thick and basically just a little bit of cable. Why do people make a big deal about "carrying around an adapter"? You connect it to the headphone and then you roll the headphone cable up just like before only this time there is an extra two inches of the adapter cable in there. How is carrying around that thing even an issue? If you want to keep your old headphones and use a new phone you just have to keep the adapter on your headphone cable all the time.
I don't think it's unreasonable to say that people connect to more than a single pair of headphones with their phone. That puts you back into dongle carrying territory.
Sometimes I walk to work without bringing headphones, then use the pair I leave at the office.
I have an Aux cable on the stereo in my living room that my friends occasionally use. Should they make sure to always bring headphones to the bar? They're not planning to listen to music at the bar, but at least they can convince themselves they didn't lug a fucking dongle around all evening just to play music pregaming at my place.
Many people nowadays don't have a computer -- especially in that big Asia demographic that Apple so loves. If your phone is the only device you own that is capable of playing music, then charging while you listen is often obligatory.
Feels to me like Apple has gone to far in designing the iPhone for a particular kind of luxury buyer (who can afford Beats or $159 earbuds) instead of targeting the mass market.
Many people use battery packs, in fact, on a recent trip to Tokyo, I bet almost everyone had a battery pack - it was commonplace to see a little USB wire coming out of the bag and into the phone. And also, many of them used headphones - that would turn out bad when competing for the same power - and strangely, almost everyone had an iPhone 6, so, I don't see how they will manage with the 7. There are so many iPhones in Tokyo that it feels like the Nokia of the 2000's.
I've run into this issue a few times with headphones that do: - apt-X only - apt-X + AAC - AAC only - neither
and as long as it supports AAC it sounds good with Apple devices. Sadly, manufacturers don't really put it on the label so it's hard to know.
They are a huge status symbol for teenagers and early 20-somethings.
1. Most of the use cases being discussed here are irrelevant for the average iPhone user. Charging and listening at the same time is not a thing for most users. I know there are perfectly reasonable scenarios where it is useful, but most people don't care. Regarding battery life: personally, I use my iPhone quite a lot, often with bluetooth headphones, and I have had to charge it only once or twice during the daytime in the last two years. If you play a lot of games, or use GPS intensively for a few hours, then battery life could be an issue. For the average consumer, I don't think it will be a major concern.
2. OTOH, in the last few years headphones have become a very, very big market. They are a huge status symbol for teenagers and early 20-somethings. If you've saved a lot of money to afford a pair in that stage of life, the headphone jack is a big deal. It's not going to be "cool" to carry around an adapter all the time, and regardless people will hear "no headphone jack" and be annoyed. That demographic seems key to me in maintaining Apple's market lead over the long term, i.e. trend-setting young people.
Overall, I actually think that (2) will be a very big issue. Whilst I am of the opinion that wires are horrible in general, Apple may have misread its market here.