Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I'm of the belief that you shouldn't refer to yourself as courageous. Especially if you're a company. Courage is something others must judge, and I was amused during the keynote Apple used the moment to give themselves a pat on the back. Ick.
That said, I'm glad they're doing it. They're putting an adapter in the box and they're selling it for $9, which is more than fair in the Apple universe. And the truth is, Apple is the most b(only?) influential player that can push the industry towards wireless. Nobody else can really move the market, and if Apple doesn't do it, we'll continue to be stuck using this very old connector.
> ...continue to be stuck using this very old connector
The question is: what's really wrong with the old connector (from a consumer's PoV)?
When they abandoned ADB, SCSI etc for USB (and at least it was clear that the new thing would end up being better, soon. Abandoning VGA could have been similar except it meant a shift to a parade of different things (DVI D/A/both; DP, mini-DP, etc) which only, (mostly) converged when the rest of the industry finally caught up by standardizing itself on HDMI. And the consumer lost as well as won in that. Switching the MacBook to USB Type C was a transition similar to the first USB one: eventually it will be great but the infrastructure hasn't build out yet (believe me: I own a MB, love it, but don't have any peripherals).
But the TRS connector wasn't preventing much of anything.
I think the real significance is that they are going to a port-free device with inductive charging like the watch. But they can't do that until enough people have switched over to wireless headsets.
If they were replacing the connector with a royalty free standard connector, then I'd be with you. But the reality is this is a proprietary connector play and if they win we'll all be paying while Apple profits. $9 isn't reasonable, it just increased the base price of all existing headphones while shifting a nice fat margin to Apple.
As for wireless I think many people think syncing and charging headphones is more hassle than just plugging in.
That said, I'm glad they're doing it. They're putting an adapter in the box and they're selling it for $9, which is more than fair in the Apple universe. And the truth is, Apple is the most b(only?) influential player that can push the industry towards wireless. Nobody else can really move the market, and if Apple doesn't do it, we'll continue to be stuck using this very old connector.