@AAO
Honestly, it'd bug the heck out of me to have to use an adapter. Not so much using it, but always having to make sure I have it on me, adding another thing to my pockets which I like keeping as empty as possible. Especially considering I'd be doing this for what I consider a standard and basic function.
Not to mention it'd be another link in the chain that can break, get lost, and cause further inconvenience.
I'm no engineer, but I can imagine the cubic centimeters or millimeters of space it frees up can make a huge difference. However, that hasn't stopped Apple, Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sony, Huawei, plus literally every other phone manufacturer from making new phones with improved processors, screens, cameras, and battery life before.
I feel it's the equivalent of a car company saying "to make our new models more efficient and have better handling/traction. We've gotten rid of the heater, AC unit, and stereo." That wouldn't be a better car in my opinion.
It's really a cop out. Instead of engineering a better design, they just sacrificed features and usability. Plus I feel that the second speaker they added is goings to take up waaaay more space than any 3.5mm jack just to make the sound out of a little phone a little less crappy. I guess I wouldn't say it's futile (I'd like my phone's built in speakers to sound as good as possible), but it's physically impossible for them to ever sound even close to decent. They're extremely small so they'll never be able to reproduce lower pitched noises nor will they ever have access to enough power to drive them decently to producer those sounds even if they were bigger.
Sent using Tapatalk on my iPhone