This was spotted by The Verge who notes that this applies to the iPhone Xs, Xs Max, and the iPhone XR. For those who are thinking that maybe older iPhone models will be exempt, it turns out that might not be the case either as apparently the iPhone 8 will stop being shipped with the dongle as well.
Presumably existing stock will still have the dongle, but future shipments will do away with it completely. For those who absolutely have to have wired audio, Apple will still continue to sell the dongle as a separate accessory, which for $9 isn’t too bad of an asking price, but it still represents an additional expense that we’re sure some probably aren’t thrilled at spending.
That being said, we are seeing a lot more wireless headphone options in the market today so if you’d rather not deal with the hassle of a dongle, maybe it’s time to start exploring some wireless headphone alternatives.