Apple will wait until at least 2020 to release a 5G iPhone

“Apple Inc. plans to hold off until at least 2020 before offering an iPhone that can connect to the next generation of high-speed phone services coming next year, according to people familiar with its plans,” Ian King, Mark Gurman, and Scott Moritz report for Bloomberg. “The delay may make it easier for rivals like Samsung Electronics Co. to win over consumers to phones that connect to 5G networks, which will provide a leap forward in mobile data speeds when they are introduced in 2019.”

MacDailyNews Take: The first sentence isn’t news, it’s a rehash of the same trio’s report from June 2017 – yes, it’s 18 months old – and the second sentence isn’t news, either; it’s conjecture by three peddlers of very old “news.”

“As with 3G and 4G, the two previous generations of mobile technology, Apple will wait as long as a year after the initial deployment of the new networks before its main product gets the capability to access them, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the company’s plans,” King, Gurman, and Moritz report.

MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, those two implementations really hurt Apple iPhone sales, didn’t they?

BTW: Apple’s iPhone captured 86% of global handset profits in Q417.

“Apple’s previous calculations — proven correct — were that the new networks and the first versions of rival smartphones would come with problems such as spotty coverage, making consumers less compelled to immediately make the jump. This time, 5G boosters argue the switch is a much bigger speed upgrade, making Apple’s decision to wait riskier,” King, Gurman, and Moritz report. “‘Apple has always been a laggard in cellular technology,’ said Mark Hung, an analyst at Gartner Inc. ‘They weren’t impacted in the past, but 5G is going to be much easier to market. But if they wait beyond 2020, then I think they’ll be impacted.'”

MacDailyNews Take: So, when Apple releases 5G iPhones in 2020, there’ll be no impact, evaporating the entire premise for this 18-month-old “news” rehash.

“To be sure, for some existing Apple customers, the lack of 5G connectivity next year won’t be a deterrent,” King, Gurman, and Moritz report. “A portion of consumers upgrade their current iPhones to the new models regardless of the changes to the device. Given that hardware upgrade cycles are slowing overall, a 2020 launch for 5G could create a super cycle of upgrades from iPhone users who would still be using an iPhone X or XS two years from now.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: In other words, Apple is going to wait until 5G is worth supporting, not rush it to market in order to bilk the ignoranti with a check mark on a spec sheet that most will never use in 2019.

If 5G actually mattered to enough people in 2019, Apple would have a 5G iPhone available in 2019. Further, if Apple is making the 5G modem themselves, nobody would know about it.

This story sounds like an idea dropped into reporters’ laps from Qualcomm’s department of disinformation.

5G is still very much in the trial phase and will have very limited availability in 2018. There is currently no standard for 5G deployments. The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance says that 5G should be rolled out in the U.S. by 2020.

Apple’s next-gen iPhones will be just fine.

What’s really exciting about 5G is that wireless broadband will eventually be able to compete with the fscking, overcharging, deceitful-bundling, monopoly-abusing cable company ISPs and give people real choice and lower prices that competition delivers.

Your competition-free ride is almost over, Comcast, Spectrum, etc.! — MacDailyNews, June 9, 2017

SEE ALSO:
More evidence that Apple’s building its own cellular modem – July 31, 2017
Apple’s next-gen iPhones said to lack 5G modem to match rivals’ data speed – June 9, 2017