
For years I have been cursing Apple for not supporting A2DP, stereo Bluetooth, on their iPods. I wasn’t mad about the missing feature because I had an iPod, but for exactly the opposite reason. I’ve been using Windows Mobiles phones as my portable media player for over three years. From very early on I have used stereo Bluetooth headphones to listen to my content. I hated having wires running from my head to my pocket. It seemed so 1990s. Plus many stereo Bluetooth headphones also support AVRCP which in laymen’s terms means they have buttons for play/pause, forward, and reverse. So not only am I free of wires, but I also don’t have to pull my phone out of my pocket just to pause the podcast I’m listening to when a co-worker walks into my cubicle.
So what does all of this have to do with Apple and the iPhone? More than you might initially think actually. It’s no surprise that the iPod/iPhone is the dominant player in the portable media player market. You can find aisles of accessories just for the iPod at any big box electronic retailer you walk into. It rules the market so much that consumer electronics manufacturers have focused their efforts on only creating accessories for Apple’s players. Follow that to the logical conclusion: iPod’s haven’t ever supported stereo Bluetooth, therefore, very few CE manufacturers have gotten into the stereo Bluetooth game.
Today Apple FINALLY announced support for A2DP in the iPhone OS 3.0. With them on board I think its reasonable to expect that by the Christmas shopping season there should be a plethora of options when it comes to finding that perfect set of wireless headphones.
Thank you Apple. I’ve never been more pleased after one of your product announcements. Oh, and by the way, I’m still not buying an iPhone.