Qualcomm President: Top priority is launching Apple’s 5G iPhone ASAP

Qualcomm really wants to sell Apple as many 5G modems as they can before time runs out when Apple-designed modems take over.

Juli Clover for MacRumors:

Apple and Qualcomm are working to launch a new 5G iPhone as fast as possible, Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon said at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Tech Summit this week… The main goal of Qualcomm’s renewed relationship with Apple is to get the iPhone launched on time, with rumors suggesting Apple’s 5G iPhones are going to come in the fall of 2020. “Priority number one of this relationship with Apple is how to launch their phone as fast as we can. That’s the priority,” said Amon.

Right now, rumors suggest all of Apple’s iPhones coming in 2020 will use 5G, though one rumor yesterday indicated that not all iPhones may support both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G, the two kinds of 5G technology that are in the works. Higher-end devices may be able to take advantage of mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G, while there’s a possibility that Apple’s more affordable devices will be limited to the sub-6GHz networks…

Amon went on to say that Qualcomm has a “multi-year agreement” with Apple. “We’re setting no expectations on front end, especially because we engaged it very late,” Amon explained. Overall, Amon said that he’s “very happy” with the progress that’s being made. “I expect that they’re going to have a great device.”

MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully the music is short and sweet while Apple is forced to dance with the devil.

6 Comments

  1. Apparently, most of the demand for 5G smartphones is coming from analysts and modem manufacturers. 5G demand is certainly not coming from customers. I don’t know anyone who is asking for a 5G smartphone, excluding YouTube tech-heads who are always asking for something new.

    1. While I an generally a fan of technological progress, the rush to faster may very well be at the expense of better. Network experts will tell you that a connection with a lower theoretical maximum throughput, but low noise, can often beat the performance of a connection with a higher theoretical bandwidth, but more noise. A noisier connection results in dropped packets and packet resends.

      Higher frequency carriers can deliver a higher data throughput. But higher frequencies are also prone to blockage and interference from terrain, structures, etc. There is a reason that AM radio frequencies carry a lot further than FM. One way to compensate is to boost transmit power and receive gain. But, in addition to potential physiological concerns, more power at the cell phone end will rapidly drain batteries.

      The misunderstandings behind RF communications remind me of the misunderstandings behind the “beamed power” debates on this forum. Physics does not care about what you want and will not change to suit your whims. Higher bandwidth RF communications comes at a cost.

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.