It wasn’t until 2016 when things changed. That’s when Apple dropped the minijack from the iPhone 7. It included a much-hated Lightning-to-minijack dongle that kept getting lost and breaking, turning it into Apple’s best-selling accessory. That year saw the birth of the AirPods, which became widely popular selling 35 million units just in the year 2018. The iPhone 7 sold like hot cakes too. And that marked the beginning of the end for the minijack. Apple showed the rest of the industry that life without the 3.5-millimeter port was possible.
Other manufacturers followed. Huawei dropped the minijack in the P20 phone, even while the P30 Pro got it back. Xiaomi dropped it from most of its phones, including its latest flagships. And Oppo did the same. Four of the top 5 manufacturers abandoned or partially abandoned the standard. Even Sony dropped the jack.