Goodbye Headphone Dominance for the New iPod Shuffle

Apple will force third-party headphone manufacturers to embed a licensed authentication chip into their headphones, without which the headphones will not work. The manufacturer will have to pay extra Apple a certain amount to get this most cherished chip. And this means that many small manufacturers will not even produce headphones for the new iPod, at the same time, as those few models of released headphones will cost more than they could.

via engadget.com

UPD : There was information from Apple representatives that this chip does not contain data for authentication, but it is still proprietary. Here is food for thought:
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Dear habrovchane, well understand English language - help to understand the intricacies.