From the article:
Since the decades-old 3.5mm standard is an analogue technology and the Lightning port is digital, the change will allow better quality audio.
Someone needs to remind Tim how sound works. The analog conversion needs to happen somewhere. Sure, Lightning moves the DAC outside the phone and further up the chain, but the Cirrus Logic DAC inside the iPhone as it stands is a rather capable chip. Attach a decent set of cans to a current generation iPhone and it does a fairly decent job.
Any improvements to sound quality won’t come from the switch to Lightning. It’ll come from manufacturers embedding their own DAC inside the headset and developing their own custom solutions.
He did raise one good point however.
Surely a much more effective way for the signatories of this petition to minimise e-waste would be to not commit themselves to buying every new iPhone.
Brilliant suggestion.
I should state that I and I’m sure many others are aware that discussing this in depth makes no difference to whether it comes to fruition or not. It’s a discussion based on a hypothetical situation in which the rumour turns out to be true and whether it’s a good or bad move. Neither opinion is ill informed and I resent the suggestion that anyone who disagrees must be. This is one specialist area I tend to research fairly regularly (as a hardware technician I don’t have much choice in the matter) and from that concluded that while a Lighting / wireless solution has some advantages, it has some fairly considerable drawbacks that shouldn’t be overlooked.
We’ll just have to wait and see how this one plays out.