Apple Said to Be Designing Own 5G Modems, 5G iPhone Launch Could Be Delayed Due to Intel
Plans of Apple to launch a 5G-capable iPhone in the year of 2020 could be delayed by Intel missing its targets for 5G modems, according to the latest report by UBS. Apple is already behind other organizations including Huawei and Samsung, who have already shown off their 5G-enabled versions of their latest flagship handsets. It was already been expected that there would be no 5G-capable iPhone in the year 2019, but according to this latest report, the organization might not be able to release such a device in the year of 2020 either if it sticks to its usual September month launch timeframe, because Intel is unlikely to have its WiFi modems ready in time.
According to 9 to 5Mac, the note of UBS to investors claims that Apple company is actually now targeting the year of 2021 for its first 5G iPhone launch, but believes even that target to be quite a technical hurdle. While this would cause a decline of short-term in the sales iPhone for Apple company, the Swiss investment bank believes that the loyal user base of the company and strong portfolio of various services will help it retain users. It is also going to take some time for 5G networks to become widespread outside of a lot of major cities.
Apple company is currently locked in multiple different legal disputes around the globe with Qualcomm, the leading manufacturer of the 5G modem, that has led to its dependence on Intel. The organization has stated that it would prefer to have multiple different suppliers and split its orders between Intel and Qualcomm, but it stopped using chips of Qualcomm several years ago. Apple company was recently forced to stop selling older models of iPhone in some of the countries after Qualcomm company won legal injunctions over allegations of violations of the intellectual property.
The only other options for Apple company, according to the note of UBS, are Samsung and MediaTek. However, efforts of MediaTek are also said to be not ready to meet the requirements of Apple. The latest report states that Apple company is unwilling to partner with Samsung, which 9to5Mac notes is very curious since the Korean giant has supplied various components including DRAM, displays, and flash memory to Apple company over the years.
A previous note of research from investment advisory firm Cowen suggested that the Korean giant Samsung would not give Apple company’s favorable pricing, which would be a more likely concern. A new report from the Taiwan Electronic Times earlier in this month of March claimed that Samsung is willing to work with Apple company but would not be able to supply an adequate quantity of chips of the 5G modem.
According to a separate new report by FastCompany, Apple company has lost confidence in the ability of Intel to deliver chips on time for it to develop and test its 2020 iPhone models. The organization was said to have already notified Intel of a final decision to drop its 5G modems for the 2020 year launch cycle. Apple company is also known to be trying to develop its own 5G modems, and the latest report states that it has over 1,000 employees currently working on this major project including former engineers of Qualcomm and Intel. However, it is unlikely that this effort will bear sweet fruit until at least the year 2021, if not any later. That would be in line with efforts of Apple to bring all hardware production in-house, most notably it’s SoC development efforts that are ARM-based.
Depending on how upcoming courtroom showdowns finally play out, analysts have usually not ruled out Apple company returning to Qualcomm as a 5G modem supplier despite their relationship which is quite acrimonious.
Robert Williams is a self-professed security expert; he has been making the people aware of the security threats. His passion is to write about Cybersecurity, malware, social engineering, Games,internet and new media. He writes for mcafee products at mcafee.com/activate or www.mcafee.com/activate.
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