The next iPhone might not have a headphone jack

How do you make an iPhone even slimmer? 

It's a question that keeps Apple up at night: A thinner battery? A narrower case? How about ditching the headphone socket?

If tech blog MacOtakara is to be believed, Apple is considering this final option: axing the 3.5mm circular headphone jack and turning to the iPhone's slender Lightning port for audio output.

A source from within the Californian tech giant has apparently revealed that ditching the conventional 3.5mm headphone jack would allow the company to shave 1mm off the iPhone 6S body - making it a worrying 6.1mm thick.

In order to plug conventional headphones into the new phone, users would have to purchase a converter - or switch to using Bluetooth wireless headsets or Lightning-compatible headphones.

There are benefits to Lightning-only headphones: current models such as the Philips Fidelio M2L feature a built-in 24-bit digital-to-analogue converter, allowing users to experience a higher quality of audio via the Lightning port.

As music streaming services such as Tidal become more obsessed with 'high-def' audio, such an evolution might find support. 

Might. The far more likely result will be a mass cry of outrage at being forced to splash £30-something on a tiny Apple converter. 

We'll keep an ear out for more rumours as they emerge.

[Via: MacRumours]