Can Apple make listening easy without a headphone jack?

SAN FRANCISCO -- When Apple shows off its latest iPhone today, it will answer a question it hasn't had to address in years: "What's it putting in the box?" (Besides the iPhone itself, that is.)

The iPhone traditionally has shipped with a pair of Apple's iconic earbuds, made famous in early advertising for the iPod music player. But tech analysts and industry bloggers, citing leaks from Apple's Asian suppliers, said it looks as if the tech giant has decided to do away with the analog headphone jack in the next iPhone.

That means the earbuds themselves are in for a revamp, one that could hint at Apple's plans for expanded use of wireless technology.

IPhone 7: incremental changes

The headphone jack is drawing attention partly because there might not be many other major changes in this year's iPhone. The new models -- the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, if Apple sticks to its usual convention -- are expected to offer faster processors, more memory and improved cameras.

But despite a recent dip in iPhone sales, most Apple watchers expect the company to save its next big overhaul for 2017, the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone's release.

Though it might not seem dramatic, eliminating the 3.5-millimeter analog jack would be controversial.

On the plus side, it could let Apple make the iPhone slightly thinner and possibly waterproof; it also might free up space for other components.

But it means future iPhone buyers will need new headsets that use a digital connection. That could just mean changing the headset cord so it plugs into the same port that recharges the device. Or it could herald an Apple commitment to wireless earbuds that connect to the phone via a technology such as Bluetooth.

Apple already sells wireless headsets from Beats Electronics, which it acquired two years ago for $3 billion.

While Apple hasn't commented, reports of the change have sparked an outcry from those who believe the old analog jacks worked perfectly well. Tech blogger Nilay Patel of The Verge blasted the move as "user-hostile and stupid."

Why headphones matter

For many people, listening to music and watching video -- not to mention making the occasional phone call -- constitutes one of the main uses for a smartphone.

"People enjoy listening to music on their smartphones today as much as they listen to music at home," said Brian Blau, a tech analyst at Gartner.

Today's wireless Bluetooth headsets, however, can be clunky to set up and sometimes randomly drop their phone connections.

And no headphone jack means existing headsets won't work with the new iPhones without an adapter. It's also not clear how you'd plug in your headset if you're already charging the phone.

Finally, Apple uses a proprietary design for its charging port, known as "Lightning." So new headphones that plug into that port won't be compatible with devices made by Apple's competitors.

Old tech on hit list

Apple has a history of preemptively doing away with older technologies, often prompting lamentations from users -- at least until they got used to it. Co-founder Steve Jobs famously decided the first iMacs didn't need a floppy disk drive in 1998, years before Windows PCs followed suit. Later, he made waves by selling MacBooks without a CD drive or even a traditional hard drive, which also have disappeared from competing laptops.

More recently, Apple made millions of old power cords incompatible by replacing the 30-pin charging port on older iPhones and iPads with the much smaller Lightning port in 2012.