More power to Apple and its legion of accessory makers. Asking people to pay $20 to use your own headphones with an $80 MP3 player is ballsy — brass ballsy. Such is the story of the new iPod shuffle, though, and I’m willing to bet that people will indeed pay for an inline headphone adapter.
If so, Belkin’s now got one for $19.99. Called, very simply, the Headphone Adapter for iPod Shuffle, it’s a 3.5mm plug that sits between your headphones and your iPod shuffle, and features the requisite controls for playing, pausing, skipping forwards and backwards, and invoking VoiceOver to hear the song title and artist read aloud.
Can’t fault Belkin for capitalizing on this gaping void that Apple’s created, although the $20 price tag might be a lot easier to stomach if it were, say, $10. Time will tell, though.
Belkin : Headphone Adapter for iPod® Shuffle [Product Page]
Use Any Headset with Your iPod shuffle with Belkin’s New Headphone Adapter [Press Release]
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