The iPhone 7 was always going to pull in the die-hard crowd, the kind of people who watch keynotes with spec sheets open. Whether the broader public would follow came down to wallets and will, because this year's iPhone brought bigger changes alongside familiar storage tiers, while the pricing cut a little closer to the bone than last year's 6X.
On storage and price, Apple kept four configurations for the iPhone 7, mirroring those of the 6X. International MSRP landed at $799 for 2 GB + 32 GB, $899 for 2 GB + 64 GB, $999 for 3 GB + 64 GB, and $1,099 for 3 GB + 128 GB. In China, Apple listed them at ¥6,299, ¥6,999, ¥7,999, and ¥8,999, respectively, each one a clean step up the ladder. In practical terms, that meant the Chinese prices worked out to about ¥6,299 (≈ $900), ¥6,999 (≈ $1,000), ¥7,999 (≈ $1,143), and ¥8,999 (≈ $1,286).
For buyers already set on an iPhone, the seven looked like the obvious pick. Heifeng Lu thought so too. What he did not predict was how much oxygen the jack would consume. The minute Apple confirmed the 3.5 mm port was gone, the internet went hot—comment streams filled with vows and venting.
"Trash Apple, even the headphone jack is gone, why buy it?"
"Apple is getting cocky. Cook is getting cocky."
"If there is no headphone jack, I am not buying one."
The next morning, Jianyu Liu came into the office after a doom scroll and could not shake a single thought: Did we make a mistake cutting the jack on our flagship? He had signed off on the Hongmeng X series following the sealed-up path, and on a bad day, it felt like painting a target on the product's back. Worry crowded out sleep, then patience, so he went straight to Heifeng.
Heifeng listened to Jianyu's pitch and smiled. "Phones are headed toward tighter integration and fewer openings; no one is stopping that. If Apple's phone is strong enough, it will sell. People who can afford an iPhone can afford Bluetooth earbuds. If Apple later drops the in-box charger, people will still pay."
His calm made the room feel larger. For him, angry threads did not equal market reality. Good products pull people through the noise.
Jianyu was not convinced. He offered up a tablet loaded with what rivals were saying.
Samsung's line read, "We give users the full experience, including sound quality, and we will not remove the 3.5 mm jack."
Xiaomi posted a wry gag, "Picked up my headphones and realized I could not listen to music." vivo's statement emphasized "respecting users" in the pace of updates.
OPPO said it had "never imagined a day would come when the 3.5 mm jack would be canceled."
Every manufacturer took a swing. It is rare to catch Apple with an exposed flank, and the jack looked like one.
Before Jianyu could press his case, a knock interrupted them. Xiao Ai, the secretary, stepped in with a look that said this update mattered. "President Lu, I just received word that Apple's U.S. pre-orders for the iPhone 7 have sold through," she said. "All of it. And within twelve hours."
Jianyu froze. Sold out. He had spent the morning expecting a backlash that turned into a flop. Instead, Apple cleared its opening allocation in half a day. The figure circulating inside sales teams for the U.S. Apple Online Store was five million units, all claimed before the first sunset.
There is a reason the phrase true fragrance exists. People curse, then they queue.
Heifeng only shook his head. This was precisely what he had expected. "When you kill the jack, people will complain and joke," he said, "but strong products keep selling. The market pays after it vents."
Jianyu stared at the numbers on the tablet, then at Heifeng, and finally felt the knot in his chest loosen. The lesson was plain. If you want your device to be recognized, first make the product strong.
"Old Liu," Heifeng said, "enough of the jitters. Get to the factory and tighten the screws. Make the Hongmeng X the phone everyone talks about this season. You know what to do."
Confidence crept back into Jianyu's voice. "I know what to do, President Lu." He packed up and left for the line, ready to lean into the plan and push output on the third-generation Hongmeng X.
Outside Huaxing, the tone among competitors shifted as quickly as the pre-order counters. The same people who had spent the night dunking on Apple's "missing hole" looked again at their own roadmaps.
Killing a mechanical port gained space inside the shell, simplified the water-resistance design, and made room for other modules that the user could actually feel. Once someone with Apple's reach normalized the trade, it stopped looking like heresy and started looking like direction.
Quietly, product managers began drafting options: either keep the jack one more year and eat the opportunity cost, or pull it and bet on a better phone.
In the meantime, online grievances did not slow down. "The future is wireless" meant very little to someone staring at a favorite wired pair with a 3.5 mm plug. Apple's counter was simple.
Put Lightning EarPods in the box, include a small adapter so old headphones still worked, and introduce a pair of first-party Bluetooth buds that promised to make forgetting cables painless. Whether anyone loved the plan was beside the point. It was a plan, with parts ready on day one.
By late afternoon, Jianyu had triggered the measures he had been holding back. Speaker modules moved from "nice to have" to baseline, tuning targets went up, and teams re-checked every gasket and seam the jack delete touched. If a sealed, cleaner design were the future, then Hongmeng X would execute it cleanly.
The internet would keep arguing for a while. That was fine. The curve that mattered had already bent.