Will we be saying goodbye to rubbish earphones with the iPhone 5?

Apple earphones

Got your bag of salt ready? Good. It's rumoured Apple may be ditching its rubbish earphones in favour of something new, potentially starting with the iPhone 5's rumoured September launch.

The purpoted replacements, as you can see in the image found by Vietnamese website Tinhte.tv, are elongated, just as plasticy-looking, more ear-friendly and come in one colour. No prizes for guessing which one.

Before you get too excited about improved sound quality straight out of the box, there are a few things you should know. Tinhte.tv can't vouch for the authenticity of the new earbuds and they are very different. Knowing Apple likes to drip feed change, the new design seems an unusually sweeping change – so we're not one hundred per cent sold.

But, it must be argued, the current in-the-box earphones are particularly bad and most of us usually ditch them anyway in favour of a competent third-party offerings. And what a simple way to make the iPhone 5 stand out even more than by giving buyers a little extra in the box?

With only a week and a half allegedly between now and the iPhone 5, the wait to find out what Apple has up its sleeves is unbearably short.