iPhone 11: Is Apple planning to ditch the dongle in 2018?

There was uproar when Apple announced its decision to abandon the 3.5mm headphone jack with the launch of the iPhone 7 in 2016. Two years later, people are more used to the idea, and one analyst thinks that Apple is ready to leave buyers without a lightning-to-headphone jack converter in the box when the iPhone 11 launches.

For Cowen analyst Matthew D. Ramsay, the writing is on the wall for the dongle, and the most obvious clue appeared in Cirrus Logic’s recent quarterly financial statement. Cirrus Logic is responsible for audio hardware on hardware including the iPhone, and this week announced quarterly revenue of $254.5 million – higher than expected.

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Cirrus’ guidance, according to Ramsay, “all but confirms that Apple will not bundle the DAC headset converter ‘dongle’ in its new iPhone models”. Though Ramsay added that the dongle would likely continue to be bundled with older models.

Ramsay isn’t the first person to predict the dongle’s demise, with Barclays’ Blayne Curtis stating in April that “we currently model no dongle this year.”

If these predictions of dongle death prove to be correct, you’ll have a few options. If you’re upgrading from an iPhone 7, 8 or X then you’ll presumably still have a dongle you can just keep using. Alternatively, there are some fantastic Bluetooth headphones out there so you can forget worrying about the adapter altogether.

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Finally, you could take matters into your own hands and buy a dongle yourself. Apple sells them on its official store for £9 each – though the average one-star rating gives you a flavour of how positively people feel about being pushed into taking this course of action.

If the iPhone 11 launches with no headphone dongle, will you be disappointed? Let us know on Twitter @TrustedReviews.