[glorgau]

Isn’t offering something the market has long demanded a smart and/or sensible economic move as opposed to caving?

It's caving when their corporate aim was to force users to buy apple licensed lightning port adapters. Always follow the money.

[Ozark Tom]

Ipad now available with usb3 rather than lightning port.

[relictele]

That may certainly be a consideration but Bluetooth is a huge portion of the headphone base, to coin a phrase.

The longtime story, true or otherwise, was that Apple devices especially phones were so scrunched for space inside that the headphone jack was a casualty.