“Apple is currently believed to be leaving out 5G connectivity as a feature of the 2019 iPhones, in favor of waiting another year before adding support for the wireless technology,” Malcolm Owen reports for AppleInsider. “While speculation and analysis indicates that is likely to be the case, Intel has seemingly confirmed it won’t be able to help Apple if it decided to add 5G to the iPhone this year.”
“Intel executives advised to Reuters on Friday devices using its 5G modems won’t go on sale until 2020,” Owen reports. “While Intel does not name specific companies that are affected by the announcement, as it is a major supplier of modems to Apple, it effectively infers this year’s iPhone models won’t be 5G-enabled if they use Intel’s modems.”
“Intel is not the only company to have created a 5G-capable modem. On Tuesday, Qualcomm revealed the Snapdragon X55 5G modem with the potential to offer download speeds of up to 7 gigabits per second and support for ‘all major frequency bands,’ but the ongoing legal battle with Apple means it won’t be making an appearance in an iPhone anytime soon,” Owen reports. “The 2020 iPhones may not even use a modem designed by Intel or anyone else at all, as Apple is believed to be working on bringing the design of the component in-house…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s no benefit of putting the cart before the horse anyway (outside of marketing to pigeons, which the fragmandroid peddlers will certainly do.
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. 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. — MacDailyNews, December 3, 2018
SEE ALSO:
Why you should not waste your money on a ‘5G’ phone in 2019 – February 9, 2019
Apple will wait until at least 2020 to release a 5G iPhone – December 3, 2018
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
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
But, but, but the orange clown says we must have 6g by tomorrow!
It’s not about practicality or rationality, it’s all about which company can innovate the most. It will be perceived by the smartphone industry that Apple is falling far behind Android when dozens of Android smartphone vendors introduce 5G smartphones and Apple has nothing to offer. There are people waiting out there to see Apple come up empty. Under ideal conditions, they’ll be able to boast their Android smartphone download speeds are double or triple what an iPhone can deliver. That means something to the industry tech-heads, news media and investors. Bragging rights will always carry a lot of weight.
Sure, I know it doesn’t mean much, especially if there isn’t enough 5G infrastructure and it will cost users more in cost and battery life. I don’t care anything about 5G since where I travel there’s plenty of WiFi connections. I’m only saying lack of 5G on an iPhone is going to look as though Apple is lazy or incompetent and certainly doomed as a company.
Everybody said that the original iPhone would be a total flop because it didn’t support 3G. A year later, when there was actually some 3G equipment in cell towers, Apple adopted it. Same thing happened with 4G and LTE—the high end Android vendors were selling the technology before there was any infrastructure to support it, while Apple waited. No shocker that we get the next verse of the same song with 5G.
Apple is putting billions of dollars a year into iPhone R&D, but when the next iPhone shows up without 5G, everyone is going to wonder what was Apple doing with that money and the tech community will have field day announcing how Apple died when Steve Jobs died. That’s just how it always ends up with Apple getting a bad rap.
As an artist, it seems to me that all Trump is missing in his quest for more Gs, be they 5, 6 or 7Gs, is zingers.
Intel too – if only their modems both had AND were zingers, they’d have 5G availability by now, but sadly… Intel is just a load of Spintel, and Apple is wise beyond its Jobsian years to ensure it has its A-Series processors and its chip teams working on Apple-invented 5G modems.
This is but a small example of the kind of insight that being an artist brings to the mind, body and soul.
It is also another small example of the way that I sacrifice for my fellow man and woman in ways that are, frankly, astonishingly humbling.
There but for the grace of God and his new angel in New York, AOC, go I when thinking of men like Scott Forestall, who was simply not able to forestall his sacking.
To infinity and beyond, and remember that I represent the arts end of the world – it is my calling and my gift to humanity.
Peace be upon me, thee and ye.
John Zingler, artist.
So we will put off replacing our mobiles to 2021.