Google has dropped the price of its headphone jack-to-USB-C adapter to better compete with rival Apple.
Last year, Apple ditched the headphone jack on the iPhone 7, and continued the trend with the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X this year. If buyers want to use their old 3.5mm jack headphones on such a device, they’ll need to fork out for a $9 adapter.
Google followed Apple’s suit with the new Google Pixel 2, which was launched earlier this month. Unlike the original Google Pixel (2016), the Google Pixel 2 has no 3.5mm audio jack, leaving many would-be customers frustrated with the prospect of having to either buy an adapter or pick up a new pair of USB-C headphones.
What made the matter worse is that Google was initially peddling its adapter dongle for a hefty price of $20 – ouch!
The good news is that Google has since decided to reduce the price of this adapter to a much more manageable $9, putting the dongle in line with Apple’s own offering.
Still, the removal of the headphone jack is quickly becoming a trend in the mobile industry, and is almost certainly going to be adopted by more phone makers in 2018 and beyond.
Some phone companies have been resistant to the change. One notable example is OnePlus, which polled users on Twitter to see whether customers were keen to see the headphone jack retained. Then, when the OnePlus 5 launched earlier this summer, fans were pleased to see that the 3.5mm audio jack had been kept on.
Related: Samsung Galaxy S9
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
