IPhone 7 Release

Why the new iPhone has customers on edge

Martin uit Utrecht

The new IPhone 7 has been released alongside the IPhone SE and Pro.

HannahN, Staff Reporter

Apple is a widely adored company because of its sleek designs, original ideas and clean cut programming. So many of the iPhone’s features have become iconic, including its familiar design and the iTunes music store. Normally, when a new iPhone is released, upgrading immediately is a must, but with Apple’s newest addition to the iPhone family, the iPhone 7, Apple customers are thinking twice before making the switch.

The iPhone 7 is bringing about a few major changes for the Apple community. The first being the replacement of the physical home button for a virtual one. The removal of the home button is intended to help in water-resistance, but there is an argument to be found in the fact that the Galaxy S7 is waterproof and has the button. While this is a smaller change, it still changes the face of the iPhone, and is making Apple customers weary of the change.

The second and more radical change is the removal of the headphone jack. The removal of the jack helps the new iPhone with water resistance, and also allows for speedier performance with more room for a faster chip and bigger battery. Coinciding with the loss of the headphone jack is the release of Apple’s new Bluetooth headphones, Air Pods, at $159 a pair. According to the Apple website, these headphones, “can sense when they’re in your ears and pause when you take them out.” While the technology in the headphones is very promising, the price, along with how easy it would be to lose them, is putting customers on edge. Apple is providing an adapter that can be plugged into the charging port so standard audio jack headphones can be used as an alternative, but this takes away the option of charging while listening unless you purchase another adapter.

Despite the changes, the company has given all it promised with its speedier performance, water-resistance, and the new iOS 10. Whether or not this will be enough to balance the changes for its customers is yet to be determined. The new iPhone may again lead the way to a new wave of technology standards.