2025 marks the year in which Mobile without headphones jack overcome those who preserve it for the first time. Of all the terminals presented until today, September 29, 61.6% of the new models dispenses with the connector compared to 38.4% that maintains it. The last quarter will no longer change that trend.
It is the first year in which the proportion is invested after a decade of constant decline. In 2024 the figure was 51% without Jack. In 2015, just 0.8% of mobiles reached the market without it, according to figures we have accessed in the database of GSMARENA.
The data. Progressive elimination has not been linear nor is it equally distributed among manufacturers:
- 726 mobile phones with Jack came out in 2015. Only 6 dispensed with him.
- In 2024 the figure was equated: 314 with Jack, 302 without him. Still advantage for the “with”.
- In 2025 we had 171 with Jack compared to 274 without him.
The most pronounced fall has occurred in the last three years.
Between the lines. The battle has not been lost by technical consensus, but by imposition. Apple led (which did not “start”) the offensive in 2016 with the iPhone 7. Others remained by imitation or by saving in components and internal space.
The official argument was always the same: gain millimeters for larger batteries or make the devices more resistant to water. The real result has been another: to push users to Buy wireless headphonesa market that has grown exponentially.
Yes, but. The mobiles that keep the jack are not all low range. Brands like Asus in his Rog Phone for Gamers Or Sony in some Xperia they keep it as a sales argument. Also Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi in specific models. EITHER Zte with a disturbing double Jack that has not served to encourage many sales.
It is not a matter of technical capacity, but business decision. Manufacturers have calculated that the cost of losing nostalgic users is less than the benefit of pushing them to the wireless ecosystem.
And now what. The extinction of the 3.5 mm jack is technical, but also strategic. Users who prefer the cable will have to settle for adapters, USB-C headphones or search in an increasingly reduced market.
USB-C remains as an alternative with cable, but fragments the market: not all cable headphones work in all mobiles without converters. The industry has decided that the future is wireless. Not because it is better in all cases, but because it is more profitable. And that decision is no longer going back.
In Xataka | I have wireless headphones of all types. None works as well as cable
Outstanding image | Math
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings