Right after Apple's annual event ended today in San Francisco, "6S Plus" immediately began trending on Twitter nationally. Here's a big reason why: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus—the crown jewels of Apple's announcements—do not include a headphone jack.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company wants consumers to buy wireless ear pieces called AirPods for $159. The problem is, many people believe they are expensive and fear they will lose them if they buy them. And they cannot just run to the corner store and buy cheap replacements for a few bucks—there's no jack for that. What's more, many iPhone users own expensive headphones that are unusable with the iPhone 7 models.
According to Amobee Brand Intelligence, 29 percent of the sentiment around "headphone jack" on Twitter was negative this afternoon, while just 10 percent of it was positive. Sixty-one percent was neutral.
Will the move create a marketing challenge for Apple and its ad agency, TBWA\Media Arts Lab? Even though the initial data points seem bad, said Jonathan Cohen, principal brand analyst at Amobee, marketers for the new iPhones will probably be just fine: They have always been able to push cutting-edge features in the past.
"Consider when Apple updated the iPhone 5 to include a lightning port—consumers were displeased when they first announced that as well," Cohen said. "Apple has a long history of making innovative, yet radical changes to their devices that make the most vocal opponents speak out, but they also have a loyal consumer base that praise their progressive design, too. Any marketing challenges that Apple will have, will be short-lived as they have a positive track record of showing an increase in performance of their products."
Trevor Wade, global marketing director at Landor, largely concurred. "Although many people may initially be frustrated by this decision," she said, "Apple has earned consumer trust over the years and people will quickly come around."
Underscoring their points was this tweet, in particular:
Losing the headphone jack is what's gonna make me ditch the iPhone, I tell myself, with no real faith that this is true
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) September 7, 2016
Meanwhile, here are several other Twitter reactions that illustrate some of the social-media aftermath thanks to doing away with the headphone jack.
$159 is even worse than the funny "way too expensive" price I was joking about for the Airpods
— Jeremy Bowers (@jeremybowers) September 7, 2016
Airpods® price: $59.00 each, or $99.00 for the pair.
— David Hobby (@strobist) September 7, 2016
So... you give us #AirPods that cost us half the price of an iPhone. #AppleEvent http://pic.twitter.com/OOgBcpZ1gU
— LuigiWTF™ (@TheLuigiWTF) September 7, 2016
I don't want the 7 I'll keep my 6s plus cuz Apple playing more games then the NBA at this time
— D (@Gorjuz__) September 7, 20166
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