Dive Brief:

• Apple announced development of a new Lightning headphone module that provides more bandwidth and better control of details like noise cancelation through apps. 

• The move seems to be a way of making its acquisition of Beats Electronics a truly Apple proprietary product by possibly doing away with the traditional headphone audio jack, which takes up a lot of space on the iPhone.

• This is similar to other sometimes controversial moves by Apple, like doing away with disc drives and pushing USB against ADB ports.

Dive Insight:

Apple tends to invite controversy with moves like this one, which disrupt how people use hardware and software and invite criticism that the company is aiming to lock consumers into its products or force them to buy upgrades. But so far, after initial grumbling, the changes are made and Apple-centric consumers adjust, sometimes because the change provides added sleekness and quality improvement.

The question for the Lightning headphone is whether consumers would get tired of this kind of disruptive challenge by Apple, especially as Google and other competitors get more assertive about developing their own products and services. Also, many audiophiles have invested in top-notch audio headphones that use the traditional jack.