No One Will Be Happy Until Everyone Uses USB-C (That's Why Bluetooth Smartphone Accessories Are Winning)

Since dropping the headphone jack, Apple users are used to using the dongle to connect their old headphones. | Credit: Getty Images by Stephen Lam

iPhone users live in a post-dongle world now. After Apple decided to ditch the separate headphone jack in favor of a single Lightning port for the iPhone 7 in 2016, iPhone users have to use the nifty little adapter to use other headphones.

By now, we're mostly used to it, but Apple's insistence on using the proprietary Lightning port rather than USB-C, which is used by other smartphone manufacturers (and even Apple laptops), creates an entirely new problem: If someone switches from an iPhone to other device, their Lightning headphones and/or collection of dongles are now obsolete.

Gordon Mah Ung wrote for PC World:

The first problem is lack of basic compatibility. For example, if you take the USB-C dongle that came with a Motorola Z2 Force or Sony Xperia XZ2, it won't work with a Google Pixel 2 XL, Samsung Galaxy S8 or OnePlus 6.

The USB-C dongle that comes with the Pixel 2 XL, though, will work across all of those phones, as does the USB-C headset that Huawei includes with its P20 Pro.

But take the USB-C dongle that’s also in the box with the Huawei P20 Pro and try it on your partner’s Pixel 2 XL, and it’s a no-go.

And yeah, the USB-C headset that’s bundled with the HTC U11 won’t work on many phones either. It’s enough to make you want to curb stomp your non-working headset or dongle.

No one is going to be fully happy until we have a universal connection technology, and that's not going to happen any time soon. So, until that does, Bluetooth and wireless charging are easily winning the smartphone audio battle.

A good pair of Bluetooth headphones doesn't care what input jack your phone has. Wireless charging mats don't need a special adapter for you to listen to music while you charge.

And that's why, until smartphone makers all decide on one universal technology, no one is going to be happy with anything that has a cable attachment. That doesn't look like something they're working toward, despite the EU dragging Apple into the USB-C world. So, for now, wireless is the leader.

That means that any promotional campaign in which you're looking to include headphones, be safe with Bluetooth. It's the equivalent of a gift card rather than guessing what size sweater someone wears.