After suffering a significant backlash against the decision to remove the traditional headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the widespread reports of an issue with the Lightning EarPods bundled with each of the new iOS smartphones will almost certainly not be music to Apple's ears.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus owners have taken to social media and Apple's support forums in their droves to complain of an intermittent glitch that allegedly renders the EarPods' attached remote control completely useless. Judging from reports, the problem seems to occur after around five minutes of listening time, with volume, call and Siri controls all becoming unresponsive when the issue occurs.

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To make matters worse for the Cupertino giant, there are also reports that the Lightning adapter suffers from the same inconvenient hiccup. Introduced to allay concerns that buyers would not be able to use their existing 3.5mm-cable headphones with their new iPhones, the adapter links traditional headphones to the devices' sole Lighting port via a free tiny cable.

Although music will continue to play when the issue occurs, Apple has been quick to confirm that it is working on a fix for the inconvenient bug in a statement to Business Insider. It would seem very likely that the fix will come in an iterative software update for iOS 10 as soon as Apple can find a quick solution to the issue.

Apple confirmed months of speculation at the iPhone 7 reveal event on 7 September, when it announced that its latest smartphone would do away with the industry-standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead, Apple appears to be looking to wireless headphones and digital ports for the future of music playback on its product range – with the MacBook possibly next on its hit list.

The move has also sparked rumours that Samsung could follow suit with its own proprietary jack. With Lenovo's Moto brand already ditching the traditional port too, it would seem that the move from analogue to digital is going full speed ahead.

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