“The next iPhone could go gigabit. Today Intel announced its XMM7650 modem, which joins Qualcomm’s X16 in the gigabit LTE world,” Sascha Segan reports for PC Magazine. “Intel’s modem is probably the front-runner for this fall’s iPhone 7s or iPhone 8.”
“The XMM7560 is a direct competitor to the X16, which Qualcomm announced last year and is now part of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chipset,” Segan reports. “Like the X16, the Intel 7560 is LTE Category 16/13, with download speeds of 1Gbps and upload speeds of 225Mbps. It supports up to 8×4 MIMO, up to 35 LTE bands, and all of the current evolutions of LTE, GSM, and CDMA.”
Segan reports, “The next iPhone will probably come out in September or October, which leaves a few months for Intel to ramp up production on the 7560.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good news, especially considering Apple’s current war with Qualcomm.
SEE ALSO:
Apple may have paid Qualcomm $40 per iPhone; accounting for 1/3rd of Qualcomm’s revenue – February 10, 2017
Conservative groups ask President Trump to terminate FCC lawsuit over Qualcomm patent licensing – January 27, 2016
Qualcomm CEO fires back at Apple: Bring it on – January 26, 2017
Apple sues Qualcomm in China seeking 1 billion yuan – January 25, 2017
Qualcomm comments on Apple’s lawsuits in China – January 25, 2017
Apple’s rebellion against the ‘Qualcomm Tax’ – January 24, 2017
Despite lawsuit, Qualcomm wants to keep doing business – January 24, 2017
Why Apple, the FTC, and others are attacking Qualcomm’s royalty model – January 24, 2017
Here are the most damning parts of Apple’s blockbuster lawsuit against Qualcomm – January 23, 2017
Apple’s legal assault on Qualcomm part of iPhone margin grab – January 23, 2017
Qualcomm says Apple’s claims are ‘baseless’ in response to Cupertino’s $1 billion lawsuit – January 21, 2017
Apple sues Qualcomm for $1 billion over onerous licensing practices – January 20, 2017
Qualcomm exec says FTC ‘rushed’ antitrust lawsuit before President-elect Trump’s inauguration – January 19, 2017
FTC alleges Qualcomm forced Apple into iPhone LTE chip deals – January 18, 2017
FTC charges Qualcomm with monopolizing key smartphone chip; alleges extracted exclusivity from Apple in exchange for reduced patent royalties – January 17, 2017
After eating Intel’s mobile lunch, Apple could next devour Qualcomm’s Baseband Processor business – January 20, 2015
Analyst: Apple’s going to dump Intel modems if they keep lagging Qualcomm – December 5, 2016
Yes, Apple is throttling download speeds for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus Verizon and Sprint versions – November 19, 2016
Apple’s modem choices may leave Verizon iPhone users feeling throttled – November 18, 2016
Tests show iPhone 7 Plus models with Qualcomm modem perform significantly better than those with Intel modem – October 20, 2016
And the new Mac Pro and Mac mini are going to be updated in three years.
It looks like Apple should spin off the Mac division into a separate company so the Mac gets the attention it deserves.
Apple scaled back the Mac until they could completely rethink the line. They’ve stopped updating their lowest selling models (headless desktops) becuase they probably weren’t worth incrementally upgrading once they decided on taking them in a different direction*.
Look no further than the iMac line to see where the headless line is going: same overall design, two sizes, wide performance range (1.6GHz – 4.0GHz). So, I be willing to bet they’re designing a “new” headless Mac that is highly customizable – scaling from mini-like performance up to Pro performance in the same form factor or design. And of course, they’ll be assembled in a new Apple plant located in the US.
************
If I had to guess… The design of the Mac Pro turned into an upgrade nightmare in both engineering and assmembly causing them to go back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, this design was supposed to carry them into the future. Engineering and designing something new would take years to do – which is where we are now… But hopefully at the end of it.
Many pros would not refuse a new Mac Pro along the lines of the old Mac Pro and current tower PC Workstations. The tower design has been with us a long time and has proven itself worthy and desirable in terms of upgradeability, flexibility and versatility. In this regard they never needed to reinvent a wheel that was already perfect. The cries of sheer joy if they did so would be global. But Apple just doesn’t backtrack once they’ve gone forward (but only in their own minds, not actual users minds & their needs).
If they want to make a new design or keep the trash can factor , fine . The matter here is waiting years to upgrade it.
It is ridiculous to keep the same specs that long, the price as it were brand new technology and killing the Cinema Display that makes the perfect match for a headless machine.
yeah ISP doesn’t really deliver 1Gbps in real life scenario
And even Intel getting there is dubious. Apple currently uses both Qualcomm’s and Intel’s modems, but the latter is way slower in reality despite nominally supporting same speeds.
What you state is pure conjecture based on no substantiating evidence. All we know is that the Qualcomm modem runs faster in phones other than the iPhone. Is it because the Qualcomm modem is actually faster or because Apple screwed up (again)? We have no way of knowing if the Intel modem would not also run faster in that other phone.
We DO know that there are certain features that Qualcomm supports that Intel doesn’t, though. And the IPhone with Qualcomm chips as a result doesn’t support some of those functions (so that Apple wouldn’t have two phones with different operating capabilities… don’t we?
I’d wonder how short this effort will fall?
I read an article on the new Qualcomm modem (1.2Gbps), and Ahmad is correct. The modem may have that theoretical bandwidth, but the rest of the ecosystem does not (yet).
It is also important to note that to achieve these faster speeds, the modems utilize unlicensed portions of the spectrum that are also occupied by Wi-Fi and other applications. So interference can be an issue. Still, progress is being made.
Well, what can I say. Last year I did not upgrade my iMac because the new ones are not worth the money. This year, my ISP offered a router for free that meets the latest specs and speeds up my connection. It replaces my aging Airport Extreme.
I am slowly being pulled out of the Apple Ecosystem.
I can deal with the loss of the Airport Extreme, but not with out the Mac. In 2018, will I say goodbye to Apple? Time will tell.
That’s okay, you’ll have tons of fun using Windows on your Dell.
I have a killer Dell system right next to my two aging soon-to-be-obsolete Mac Pro towers. If you subscribe to Adobe tools, switching over is trivial. Tim Cook is really, really effing up here.
Sure, stick your fingers in your ear and hum real loud. That’s how badly you’re missing the point.
We are not missing the point. I am a strong advocate for the pros and have been for decades. I have also been vocal about the need for a new pro Mac and the need for a stable forward path in hardware and software for the pros. Their businesses depend upon it.
What you are seeing is gripe fatigue. Every time there is an article on something new from Apple, the Mac Pro gripe parade pops up for another encore. I get it that you guys are pissed off and I feel your pain. I just don’t need to hear about it every day.
If you want to make your voice heard and try to exercise some power, then contact Apple directly. Don’t just hope that they visit MDN to read the gripes. Form (or reinvigorate) a professional association to aggregate your voices and speak more loudly to Apple. Find people sympathetic to your cause that have ties to key Apple managers. Post an online petition. Submit a motion at the annual shareholders meeting. Those things may yield some results. Griping on this forum…not so much.
Maybe you pros ought to elect a few people to represent you to Apple as “Pro evangelists” – a counterpart to the Mac evangelists from a couple of decades ago like Guy Kawasaki.
Apple products are supposed to be about the people. We are the ones who were excited about Macs and other Apple products and spread that interest to our family members, friends, and coworkers. However, as Apple and its user base have grown over the past decade, I have seen that excitement wane a bit and the links between the company and its customers weaken. We need to find a way to get Mac users engaged with the company again, and a way to make Apple a bit more responsive to the customer. In the absence of Steve Jobs, Apple might just have to listen to its user base a bit more.
There are many avenues that you can try. Apple’s support links are a readily available and easy to use option.
Here is a link to Apple’s product feedback page. Note that the input field is limited in size – a short paragraph or a couple of hundred words at a guess.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ –> choose Mac Pro
Kick off an initiative to get all of the pro users of Apple products to submit feedback to the company in great volume on the Mac Pro, Apple displays, etc. Let them know what is important to you and how their recent policies have adversely impacted you and your businesses. It would only take five or ten minutes per person and it just might accomplish something.
Agree. Apple needs to break into business units with greater autonomy to drive product development.
There are many others that have already left the ecosystem. (I’ve helped a few) Apple’s going after new types of consumers and sales on that side forces them to focus there. If you’re not happy with the current state (and this same statement was true 4 years ago), you are NOT going to be happy with the future.
Save yourself some anguish, bite the bullet, leave the ecosystem altogether then, whether the Pro hasn’t been updated in 5 or 10 years, it won’t matter to you anymore! 🙂 All of that will fade into background noise as you enjoy the latest and greatest tech the Computer industry has to offer.
I said it last year but I MEAN it this year as I’m up against a wall – no 2017 Mac Pro that meets my needs?, then moving on to a nice Puget Systems PC Workstation. (I was at Siggraph and drooled over their multiple GPU carded machines while sad this kind of prior lust with Apple machines had faded.)
New machine running Autocad 2016 and Windows 7 like my company.
Wrong Again, I have no problem with you speaking about the past – what Apple has or has not done. But I don’t agree with your assessment of the future.
People, do not let other people drag you down into their misery and despair. Make your own choices.
Yes, I will. Some of us who spent our earlier years with recalcitrant and glitchy operating systems, including several bitter flavours of Windows, shudder at the idea of returning to the minefield. We do not trust that it has been fully cleared by dogs and robots. We prefer unix-based systems even if it means maintaining “lesser” application suites for specific work groups. As for Macs, they are excellent machines. I’ve been able to upgrade my 2013 Mac Pro except for the custom GPU.. and the inside-outness doesn’t bother me the way it does some others. My only real gripe is that Tim Cook has been saying “stay tuned” like a broken record, when he should instead give out some genuine assurance that new Macs are really on the way, so people can have a visible planning horizon. I don’t buy the excuse of maintaining competitive secrecy, not with a commodity like the workstation. Something else has to be going on at Apple for them to inexplicably leave an entire market segment twisting in the wind.
I think this year’s iPhone is probably completely designed. A new modem might make it to the 2018 iPhone.
Yeah right, and at Apple’s current adoption rate, it will take 5 years for that chip to make it in an iPhone.
Perfect… I’ll be able to go over my data plan in 40 seconds 🙂