Fancy new headphones leapfrog iPhone?

We weren’t the only ones excited about Apple’s announcement of the new In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic. A quick look at this thread on discussions.apple.com reveals acute interest from iPhone owners in the dual-driver buds, which ostensibly offer "pro audio" quality at the seemingly impossible price point of $79. The only catch was that they didn’t list iPhone in the Compatibility Information statement. Odd, but we didn’t want to annoy the fanboys by rushing to judgment. We thought we’d wait until the 2.1 upgrade came out for iPhone and check the product page again to see if it was merely a software update that was required.

24 hours hence, we got nothing. Are we left, then, to assume that the lack of compatibility is a hardware, and not a software issue? Is it a fact that the top-of-the-line Apple headphones are incompatible with Apple’s top-of-the-line mobile device? The implication is "yes." In all likelihood, iPhone owners will have to wait until the next-generation iPhone to adopt this accessory.

Lest we sound too whiny, the consensus on Apple’s discussion boards is that the headphones will be able to perform all advertised functions on an iPhone, except for the volume control function. That’s okay, we guess, since we didn’t have volume control on the factory headphones, but it’s still kind of crappy not to have. This is to say nothing of the 1G iPhones with the recessed audio port (worst idea EVER). The owners of those can now add another little item to the list of arguments for upgrading to 3G (if it turns out the 3Gs ARE compatible with the new buds) or waiting until the next-generation iPhone which will do your dishes, make your bed, and zap your cellulite, but still cause GSM buzz in your car stereo.

Another beef that has been revived with these new headphones is the standard "why can’t Apple offer headphones in black?" lament. From a sales perspective, this would make sense for apple, but from a marketing and differentiation perspective, we don’t think it will happen. Tilt at some other windmills, folks. We’d also like to point out that if you’re afraid of getting ‘pod-jacked because of your white headphone cables, you’re probably just a paranoid <expletive>.

So what do think? Is there still any hope for iPhone compatibility with the fancy new headphones? Are there other ultra-geeky headphones out there that are as good or better and not 10x the cost? Help us out in the comments.