Steve Wozniak: Removing iPhone 7 headphone jack will alienate customers

Apple co-founder not happy about rumoured plans

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has spoken out over rumours that Apple plans to remove the headphone jack from the forthcoming iPhone 7 smartphone, warning that the company would "tick off" a lot of loyal customers if it did.

And those customers include Wozniak, who has also warmed to Android and Google's Nexus 5 smartphone in particular.

Speculation has strongly indicated that Apple will remove the 3.5mm headphone jack with the iPhone 7 in favour of a Lightning port in a bid to make the device thinner and potentially waterproof.

However, this also means that customers will have to upgrade to Lightning- or Bluetooth-enabled headphones or use a 3.5mm-to-Lightning adaptor.

This hasn't gone down well with Woz, who believes that it will annoy a lot of Apple's customers.

"If it's missing the 3.5mm earphone jack, that's going to tick off a lot of people," he told The Australian Financial Review.

"I would not use Bluetooth. I don't like wireless. I have cars where you can plug in the music, or go through Bluetooth, and Bluetooth just sounds so flat for the same music."

Woz also pointed out that he's a fan of his custom-made headphones, which would need to be connected via an adaptor if he upgrades to the iPhone 7.

"Mine have custom ear implants. They fit in so comfortably, I can sleep on them and everything. And they only come out with one kind of jack, so I'll have to go through the adaptor," he said.

This is unless Apple upgrades the Bluetooth in its next smartphone to improve the audio quality.

"If there's a Bluetooth 2 that has higher bandwidth and better quality, that sounds like real music, I would use it. But we'll see. Apple is good at moving towards the future, and I like to follow that," he said.

Woz is probably referring to Bluetooth 5, which was announced in June. It is expected to be faster and have a longer range and a higher transfer rate.

While Woz isn't a fan of Apple's Lightning port, he is a big fan of the USB Type-C connectivity standard and said, perhaps a year too late, that he expects it to be "the future".