If you frequent the blogosphere and read about Android phones and smartphones in general, you've probably got a pretty good idea about how mad everyone is about notched screens and the lack of a headphone jack. Most of these things are the butt of the joke in advertising campaign, and readers really hate wireless headphones and funky shaped screens.
Except, it turns out users might not actually care about the headphone jack all that much. Let's talk about it.
Ting, that MVNO you've probably seen sponsor some YouTube videos, did a survey about what features were most important to users when deciding to purchase a smartphone. The survey had readers select what they considered to be the most important feature on a smartphone from a list including price, operating system, specs, phone screen, battery, headphone jack, camera, and “cool factor.”
Contrary to angry articles, the headphone jack didn't even crack the top 3. In fact, it was one of the least important factors that users chose, with only 1% of responders saying it mattered. And yes, it's easy to say that surveys can be a little inaccurate, but it's hard to be that far off the mark, and phone sales also seem to show that people really don't care all that much. Apple ditching the headphone jack hasn't hurt them at all, and Samsung seems to have had an extremely strong preorder period for the Galaxy Note 10 despite the missing headphone jack. Losing the jack sucks, but the average consumer really doesn't mind very much.
Additionally, the survey did find that users were keeping their phones for longer and longer. The two-year upgrade cycle is all but dead with about half of people saying they keep their phones for three to five years. That does match the general sentiment of the internet's complaints about outrageous phone prices, so hey, at least we're not wrong all the time.
If you'd like to read Ting's full survey, you can find it here.
