The future is an upcoming industry standard. Bluetooth. This year I believe is the first year we're seeing fully wireless earbuds, last year or two wired bluetooth earbuds were becoming more popular. Both in the historical examples and now the technology is more expensive and has some drawbacks, however they're much more practical(other than charging, which apple is betting will improve and that 4 hours of playback with 24 hours of recharge in the case will be acceptable).