iOS can refuse to play anything it fancies. If Apple wanted to add DRM it could have done it already (I thought it did once but took it off but I may be recalling incorrectly). I can't for the life of me see how this makes any difference.

BTW I don't mean this as some sort of "Apple are too nice to do this" thing. TBH I think they don't enforce audio DRM largely because they wouldn't be the beneficiaries. If and when that changes then I'm sure we'll hear different rhetoric.

They limit their market to only those people who'll put up with DRMd music. I don't recall the dates of the decisions and changes too well but I'm pretty confident iTunes sales would have sky-rocketed some time AFTER the DRM came off.

Is the number of people who only buy music from iTunes really enough to keep iPhone where it is in the market?

> Is the number of people who only buy music from iTunes really enough to keep iPhone where it is in the market?

I'm going to take a punt and suggest that the answer is no. Why do I think that? Because Apple haven't restricted music to DRM only.

Apple was the one that forced the hand of the record companies to eliminate DRM requirements.

Removing the headphone jack sucks, but the reasons given are not why.

Not true. The os switches off the analog jack when the internal speaker is used or when sound is routed to a Bluetooth headphone or speaker. Clearly the OS can deny an analog jack.

my point is, an os can check whether an analog jack is authorized to work or not, an analog jack is an analog jack. On the other hand, a DRM system can be implemented with any digital accessory.

Also not true - there is no reason they couldn't implement a digital handshake over 3.5mm jacks to identity approved devices. It's just wires.

Yes it can. I can use the mixer now to mute only the analog output while the digital output (eg. HDMI) continues to play.