Apple’s Entire 2020 iPhone Lineup Might Feature 5G
All of Apple’s three new iPhones coming out next year might feature 5G. According to a new report from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is now working to get 5G on all three of the 2020 iPhones. Apple was previously only expected to introduce 5G for two of the three new 2020 iPhones.
Apple only recently acquired Intel’s smartphone modem business for a whopping $1 billion. The acquisition has led to Apple having more resources, according to Kuo, which will allow the company to introduce 5G for the entire iPhone lineup.
There’s a little catch, though: Apple might release one of the iPhones with Sub-6GHz 5G, with two of the other more premium handsets featuring both Sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G. As MacRumors explains, the latter will allow for higher speeds in areas where mmWave is supported, while Sub-6GHz will be more appropriate for customers in areas where a cheaper iPhone will sell better, but of course, offer slower speeds than mmWave. The cheaper iPhone coming with only Sub-6GHz would make sense as it would allow Apple to compete with the cheap Android phones that’ll come with 5G.
Still, the recent $1 billion Intel acquisition doesn’t mean Apple will use its own 5G chips on the 2020 iPhone, though. The company will actually use Qualcomm chips on the 5G iPhone in 2020, though it will likely switch to its own chips in 2021 once they are ready. After all, the acquisition isn’t expected to close until Q4 2019, and Apple will need a lot of time before the company can actually start making use of all the Intel resources.