A new survey is stoking speculation that Apple might kill the MacBook Pro headphone jack next

Is Apple planning to kill off the headphone jack on the MacBook?

That's what some people are speculating after multiple Apple customers received surveys from the company about how they use their products - particularly focusing on the headphone jack.

(We first heard about the survey from Apple blog MacRumors.)

Apple has courted controversy with its most recent smartphone, the iPhone 7, by ditching the headphone jack and forcing users to opt for wireless headphones or use an adaptor cable. Executives have defended the decision by saying it took "courage" to do so, and that the 3.5mm jack is a fundamentally outdated format that needs to be retired.

Apple has a reputation for aggressively ditching old input methods - from the floppy disk to the CD drive, the Californian company has never been afraid to consign still-popular mediums to the trashcan if it thinks they are antiquated.

Now Apple has killed off the headphone jack in the iPhone, it's not unreasonable to suspect it's considering if and when to do similar on its MacBook and other products. (We've reached out to Apple to see if it will comment, but the company almost never talks about unannounced products and features.)

If Apple kills off the headphone jack, it likely won't be in the next MacBook Pro, which is also rumoured to come with a radical second touch-sensitive screen above the keyboard for displaying shortcuts. Purported leaked photos show what appears to be a 3.5mm jack.

But further down the line, as Apple attempts to drag customers kicking and screaming into its wireless vision of the future, then it's certainly possible.