A new memo from Barclays indicates Apple will stop bundling a Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone adapter with new iPhone, starting this fall.
Also in the memo, the bank dropped its target price for Apple stock from $168 to $157, due to fears of a “weaker iPhone franchise.”
AppleInsider originally obtained the memo:
“We currently model no dongle this year,” wrote Barclays’ Blayne Curtis. The analyst didn’t provide any immediate evidence for the assertion.
Apple stopped including a 3.5mm headphone jack as of the release of the iPhone 7, since then, the company has included a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter with new iPhone models. This allows iPhone owners who have a favorite pair of headphones and speakers that use the jack to use them with their new iPhone.
While eliminating the adapter will likely lead to an outcry from iPhone users who are holding on to the 3.5mm jack technology, it will cut down on parts, packaging, and yes, costs.
Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz shared the reduced Apple stock target price, saying “incremental deterioration in [iPhone] demand, particularly for IPX [iPhone X].” Echoing some other researchers, Moskowitz’s view is that the price of the iPhone X is too high, and has probably “alienated many users.”
Moskowitz also says that concerns over battery life camera and texting functionality indicate that average sales prices will drop for Apple and the rest of the smartphone industry.