According to Sony who posted an FAQ on its website, “This is part of the shift to our new Ambient Flow design language. In order to create the beautiful seamless design, our designers needed to remove the headphone jack. Plus, we’re aware of the major market trend toward wireless headphones over wired headphones.”
It is an interesting explanation, although the sentiment that we’re seeing is that not many appear to buy into what Sony is claiming, or at least they think it is a flimsy excuse. That being said, we suppose this was an eventuality, just like we saw with many ports and peripherals from back in the day. Let’s not forget Apple caused quite a stir when they stopped including optical drives with their laptops, but looking around today, how many people actually still require a CD for software installs?
Sony also points out that they do include an adapter that will allow users to connect 3.5mm headphones to the phone via a cable if they truly wish to do so, although presumably the company would prefer if you bought their wireless headphones.