Apple likely moved past the 5g minefield by developing a 6g modem and will license 5g patents for a limited time.
In 2027, it will be time for a new standard, with 5g having lasted a year or more longer than 4g as the top dog.
Can’t wait. Tired of Qualcomm’s tech stifling innovation.
Kuo is directly saying “5G” modems, and, isn’t 6G still 5 to 10 years out? Then, is there anything interesting with 6G at 500 MHz to 5 GHz frequencies?
For me, I’d like to see more power efficient wireless connections and ubiquitous coverage. Bandwidth isn’t a big feature anymore. So, if Apple can produce highly efficient 5G modems that supports networks everywhere, that’s good enough.
That’s because he has no other info and apple WAS working on 5g before deciding the patents they bought weren’t doing them any favors.
Working on developing an all new 5g modem at this point is foolish. That’s not a word to describe apple. Outside of rare misses like the AVP, They’re always looking ahead. “Skating to where the puck will be, not where it has been.”
Qualcomm has the upper hand with 5g. Apple is moving past them. It’s nearly time for a superior standard anyway. The company that gave us the true personal computer, mainstream GUI, the mouse, airdrop, FireWire, thunderbolt, the smartphone as we know it today, numerous video standards, the first trackpad laptop, the first multitouch mouse with 360 scroll, was integral to the birth of WiFi, mini DisplayPort, Unicode, TrueType, openCL, HLS live streaming, upended the CPU and GPU industries with its own powerful yet efficient silicon, and much more - and is renown for eliminating old, archaic tech that holds the industries back, and makes the most reliable products in the industries it operates in. THIS company? Yeah, they’ll do fine front-running a new, superior communications chip as the standard for the following decade or so.
No, 6g isn’t 10 years out. By 2027, 5g will have been the top standard longer than 4g was. If anything, 5g has been the top tier too long. The rate of technology improvement should increase, not decrease, and Apple is a company known for pushing the envelope - and sometimes just tearing the envelope up and making a better one.
Last but not least, you seem to remember that “good enough” is not in Apples vocabulary. They’re more about “insanely great” achievements.
I'm not sure Apple's intent is what you think it is. A modem yes, but not taking on a 6G standard of their own.
Apple likely moved past the 5g minefield by developing a 6g modem and will license 5g patents for a limited time.
In 2027, it will be time for a new standard, with 5g having lasted a year or more longer than 4g as the top dog.
Can’t wait. Tired of Qualcomm’s tech stifling innovation.
Kuo is directly saying “5G” modems, and, isn’t 6G still 5 to 10 years out? Then, is there anything interesting with 6G at 500 MHz to 5 GHz frequencies?
For me, I’d like to see more power efficient wireless connections and ubiquitous coverage. Bandwidth isn’t a big feature anymore. So, if Apple can produce highly efficient 5G modems that supports networks everywhere, that’s good enough.
That’s because he has no other info and apple WAS working on 5g before deciding the patents they bought weren’t doing them any favors.
Working on developing an all new 5g modem at this point is foolish. That’s not a word to describe apple. Outside of rare misses like the AVP, They’re always looking ahead. “Skating to where the puck will be, not where it has been.”
Qualcomm has the upper hand with 5g. Apple is moving past them. It’s nearly time for a superior standard anyway. The company that gave us the true personal computer, mainstream GUI, the mouse, airdrop, FireWire, thunderbolt, the smartphone as we know it today, numerous video standards, the first trackpad laptop, the first multitouch mouse with 360 scroll, was integral to the birth of WiFi, mini DisplayPort, Unicode, TrueType, openCL, HLS live streaming, upended the CPU and GPU industries with its own powerful yet efficient silicon, and much more - and is renown for eliminating old, archaic tech that holds the industries back, and makes the most reliable products in the industries it operates in. THIS company? Yeah, they’ll do fine front-running a new, superior communications chip as the standard for the following decade or so.
No, 6g isn’t 10 years out. By 2027, 5g will have been the top standard longer than 4g was. If anything, 5g has been the top tier too long. The rate of technology improvement should increase, not decrease, and Apple is a company known for pushing the envelope - and sometimes just tearing the envelope up and making a better one.
Last but not least, you seem to remember that “good enough” is not in Apples vocabulary. They’re more about “insanely great” achievements.
I'm not sure Apple's intent is what you think it is. A modem yes, but not taking on a 6G standard of their own.
It’s exactly what o think it is. As part of ieee, Apple has always been about developing things for the hood of people, not just proprietary standards. Universal standards. Working with others to ensure its everything it needs to be is also an Apple hallmark.
And yet, I don’t hear about any possible standards partner doing the heavy lifting of actually making 6G work. So while there is a brain trust, there is one spearhead actually bringing it to reality. It will take big telecoms like ATT to roll it out and install the tech in transmitters/receivers. Eventually Verizon and everyone else wil be on board too.
In the end, not only will Apple be a dominant contributor to the standard, they will have the modem tech. It could be that the majority of 6g modems are provided by Apple beyond Apple devices.
It’s exactly what o think it is. As part of ieee, Apple has always been about developing things for the hood of people, not just proprietary standards. Universal standards. Working with others to ensure its everything it needs to be is also an Apple hallmark.
Apple fought against standard connectors for iPhones, iPads, and accessories for 15 years after agreed to follow standards. A lot of e-waste caused by proprietary connectors and chargers and more so for all those proprietary chargers and dongles the Mac had for decades before USB-C and DisplayPort.
Apple is mainly about Apple and keeping products nice but plan for something even nicer or more Pro/Max/Ultra to replace them. Mediocre by design.... someone should write a book.
It’s exactly what o think it is. As part of ieee, Apple has always been about developing things for the hood of people, not just proprietary standards. Universal standards. Working with others to ensure its everything it needs to be is also an Apple hallmark.
Apple fought against standard connectors for iPhones, iPads, and accessories for 15 years after agreed to follow standards. A lot of e-waste caused by proprietary connectors and chargers and more so for all those proprietary chargers and dongles the Mac had for decades before USB-C and DisplayPort.
Apple is mainly about Apple and keeping products nice but plan for something even nicer or more Pro/Max/Ultra to replace them. Mediocre by design.... someone should write a book.
Apple is the one that kept eWaste down per device by using a single standard for an incredibly long time. 30-pin connector was used on the iiPod, Phone, and iPad before they came up with the better Lightning connector. It's only more recent that USB-C became king, which Apple was also the first major brand to jump fully into with their Macs, just like they did with USB-A.
I remember when gas station, big box stores, grocery stores, and mailbox stores, and countless other places would have walls and carousels of cellphone chargers in impossible to open plastic containers. Each had different connectors attached to a different PSU. Sometimes there was more than one model it worked for but they were very close in all regards, but usually even within the same vendor there were dozens of possible options you had use. And if the PSU died or the cable broke you had to replace the whole thing, unless Apple offering them as separate items, which I think extended back to the original iPod which came with a PSU with FW-400 cable for charging, that same cable for fast data transfer from a Mac and USB-A 1.0 for data transfer from a PC, if memory serves.
Apple is really getting rid of many third party components. Remember the initial CPU which was Samsung ARM? Gone. Apple designs them and makes them. Remember the GPU by PowerVR? Gone. Apple makes it. Remember Intel? Gone. Apple Silicon. Now, we're seeing that with 5G modem.
But at the same time, I can see why Apple's fed up with those competitors trying to capitalize on Apple's success with outrageous fees.
Qualcomm seems to be in the losing game in the long run by refusing to cooperate with an important client.
What are you blathering about? Qualcomm isn’t “refusing to cooperate”. They are a supplier and like any supplier they need to maximize profits for their shareholders.
And since they are crucial to Apple’s success, they have a lot of power in their demands.
The exact same reason Apple is charging us an arm and a leg for their products. And to even profit more from us with their products, they want to lower their cost by producing their own 5G chip, next to having more control over its design.
You are treating Apple as if they are some magical, mystical company that works for our best interest. They are not. It’s just business.
It’s exactly what o think it is. As part of ieee, Apple has always been about developing things for the hood of people, not just proprietary standards. Universal standards. Working with others to ensure its everything it needs to be is also an Apple hallmark.
Apple fought against standard connectors for iPhones, iPads, and accessories for 15 years after agreed to follow standards. A lot of e-waste caused by proprietary connectors and chargers and more so for all those proprietary chargers and dongles the Mac had for decades before USB-C and DisplayPort.
Apple is mainly about Apple and keeping products nice but plan for something even nicer or more Pro/Max/Ultra to replace them. Mediocre by design.... someone should write a book.
and yet it has fought for open web standards like html5, removing proprietary stuff like flash, pushing h.264 over QuickTime, etc. it also was the first to push WiFi in general. Heck, AirPlay is in most TVs now.
Part of being a major contributor to the ieee standards organization means good stuff for everyone.
Apple has been doing that for a lot longer than an iPhone cable.
Of course it business. But it’s business with ideals and care. Not every business is soulless like Qualcomm, Samsung, etc. Apple has built a culture around care. And it it the formula of their success in business.
Apple likely moved past the 5g minefield by developing a 6g modem and will license 5g patents for a limited time.
In 2027, it will be time for a new standard, with 5g having lasted a year or more longer than 4g as the top dog.
Can’t wait. Tired of Qualcomm’s tech stifling innovation.
Kuo is directly saying “5G” modems, and, isn’t 6G still 5 to 10 years out? Then, is there anything interesting with 6G at 500 MHz to 5 GHz frequencies?
For me, I’d like to see more power efficient wireless connections and ubiquitous coverage. Bandwidth isn’t a big feature anymore. So, if Apple can produce highly efficient 5G modems that supports networks everywhere, that’s good enough.
That’s because he has no other info and apple WAS working on 5g before deciding the patents they bought weren’t doing them any favors.
Working on developing an all new 5g modem at this point is foolish. That’s not a word to describe apple. Outside of rare misses like the AVP, They’re always looking ahead. “Skating to where the puck will be, not where it has been.”
Qualcomm has the upper hand with 5g. Apple is moving past them. It’s nearly time for a superior standard anyway. The company that gave us the true personal computer, mainstream GUI, the mouse, airdrop, FireWire, thunderbolt, the smartphone as we know it today, numerous video standards, the first trackpad laptop, the first multitouch mouse with 360 scroll, was integral to the birth of WiFi, mini DisplayPort, Unicode, TrueType, openCL, HLS live streaming, upended the CPU and GPU industries with its own powerful yet efficient silicon, and much more - and is renown for eliminating old, archaic tech that holds the industries back, and makes the most reliable products in the industries it operates in. THIS company? Yeah, they’ll do fine front-running a new, superior communications chip as the standard for the following decade or so.
No, 6g isn’t 10 years out. By 2027, 5g will have been the top standard longer than 4g was. If anything, 5g has been the top tier too long. The rate of technology improvement should increase, not decrease, and Apple is a company known for pushing the envelope - and sometimes just tearing the envelope up and making a better one.
Last but not least, you seem to remember that “good enough” is not in Apples vocabulary. They’re more about “insanely great” achievements.
I'm not sure Apple's intent is what you think it is. A modem yes, but not taking on a 6G standard of their own.
It’s exactly what o think it is. As part of ieee, Apple has always been about developing things for the hood of people, not just proprietary standards. Universal standards. Working with others to ensure its everything it needs to be is also an Apple hallmark.
And yet, I don’t hear about any possible standards partner doing the heavy lifting of actually making 6G work. So while there is a brain trust, there is one spearhead actually bringing it to reality. It will take big telecoms like ATT to roll it out and install the tech in transmitters/receivers. Eventually Verizon and everyone else wil be on board too.
In the end, not only will Apple be a dominant contributor to the standard, they will have the modem tech. It could be that the majority of 6g modems are provided by Apple beyond Apple devices.
6G is still in the development and early standardisation process. That is why you can't 'see' any heavy lifting. However, believe me. There is. Lots of it, but the last time I checked the main 6G patent players, Apple wasn't in the top 20.
That was 2022 and the listing was:
Intel
Samsung
IBM
Huawei
Carriers do NOT want an early roll out of 6G. They want to recoup their investments on 5G first and 5.5G is due for next year. 6G won't be here before 2030 IMO.
Apple isn't really pushing fundamental research like the other big players. It's more of an applied research company and mostly in the CE realm.
You have little to no 'responsibility' there and can create and drop products easily. The users get the short end of the stick and have to adapt.
As you move into industry standards, things change a lot. Backwards compatibility and long term support are absolutes.
Apple hasn't done that in historical terms. It's the complete opposite. Drop technology, move on and leave users high and dry.
That's what happened with Firewire. When Steve Jobs announced Apple’s first laptop without Firewire there were folks on Apple's own Firewire mailing lists that were unaware of the change! Various companies had to cancel products late into the development phase because suddenly the number of Firewire ports available on the market was going to be affected and those products wouldn't be commercially viable. Imagine the costs involved in developing a product and having to cancel it because no one told you about the plans to phase out a vital connection technology. The pushback on that decision was so great that Apple actually backtracked and re-introduced Firewire on the next upgrade but the damage had been done. That is Apple and not long after Firewire was history.
The Sawtooth Macs had internal Firewire ports and not even Apple provided a product that could use them.
The other side of the technology coin is the licencing. Apple ruined the chances of Firewire getting adopted more widely because of a terrible licencing policy.
By the time the HANA alliance came about or products like the Sony LISSA it was too late. Even with the corrections to licencing. Always too late.
USB2 was dominating and Apple was basically last to that party, causing yet more frustration for users who were seeing cheap USB2 devices flood the market and not able to use them.
I once ran into some very nasty iTunes/iPhone/Mac OS problems for which Apple and its geniuses had no solution.
The problem was a new iPhone needed a new version of iTunes on the Mac. Once installed, iTunes needed a new version of Mac OS to connect to the iPhone. That wasn't possible because that Mac couldn't run the version of MacOS that was needed.
By that time Apple had already nuked the contents of the of the 'old' iPhone (it was a tradein) and I was in shit street.
This, after explaining everything to Apple in store (forewarning them) and asking for confirmation that the setup process would work. I was told not to worry by the smiley Apple guy who had literally never even seen the laptop I brought with me before.
All Apple was interested in was 'the sale', and all of my doubts fell on deaf ears because the guy doing the sale wasn't going to have to fix the problems. That fell on other people and after hours of trying I was asked to book an appointment with tech support and got a shrug of the shoulders. This was after speaking to a genius!
Apple had their money and that was it!
The weird thing is that if I had been a Windows iPhone user I wouldn't have had any of those problems because the same version of iTunes that the iPhone needed was compatible with Windows all the way back to XP!
What Apple was 'pushing' for in this situation was for me to upgrade, not only to a new iPhone but also a new Mac.
In the end I fixed the problems myself at home because I'd taken some steps before surrendering the old iPhone. So much for genius advice!
That is a prime example of Apple and lack of backwards compatibility. That won't cut it in industry. Not at all.
Apple is moving upstream in terms of influence in standardization but not by design. Apple had zero intention of that. It was the result of strategic goofs and having no option but to try an go it alone.
It will have to collaborate and being so late to this field, has very little accumulated knowhow.
Realistically speaking it will be almost impossible to compete with Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson, Intel etc.
It might be able to ship a modem but let's not forget that Intel shipped modems for Apple for years but they never ever touched anything that Qualcomm produced in terms of performance.
I do know Apple is working with Huawei in the EU on Network Sensing research but everyone in the field is working on network sensing as it will be a major part of 6G for industry and domestic users.
While the overall specifications are public, how to make them work in the real-world involves lots of very carefully-kept trade secrets. The successful vendors, especially Qualcomm, use these trade secrets instead of patents so that they don't have to disclose them publicly.
Essentially, Apple is having to re-discover / re-invent these trade secrets internally. It's a long process driven by trial and error. It's not something you can arbitrarily schedule a completion date for. Intel sucked at this, which is why their modems generally sucked, why they never had a decently working 4G model, why they were never going to get to 5G, and why they more or less had to give away their modem division. If Apple is planning on having a chip taped out, debugged, and in production next year that means feel they've cracked everything. Once they're started with actual production, they will probably be able to produce modems for existing and upgraded standards at a reasonably fast pace.
An interesting revenge move for Apple would be to publish everything they've learned about building cellular modems (all of the industry trade secrets). This would nuke Qualcomm's balance sheet as cheap competitors would spring up all over the place. Qualcomm would still control the bleeding edge in the short term, but if it creates an inability to over-license their patent portfolio (they force customers to license patents they're not using and are widely considered exploitative in their licensing practices for their chipsets) it will cut hard into their earnings.
A few years ago, could you imagine Apple giving Intel the bums rush, most of the tech industry and most of the tech forums (some Appleinsider participants too) said Apple should stick with Intel the Golden Child they would be utterly lost without them or Microsoft compatibility.
Apple probably wants to build new devices incorporating a modem (their modem), and Apple can’t do that unless they have their own Apple Vision almost assuredly would’ve had an Apple modem in it. If it was ready, Shrinking the Apple Vision to the size of a pair glasses (which critics cry about) can’t happen without an Apple modem inside it at least not in the way Apple would want to design it?
How long did it take Apple beginning to end to replace Intel CPU’S about 12 years? P.A. Semi Acquired in 2008, M1 Mac released in 2020.
Actually yes I could because in 2006 when Apple announced the move to Intel my colleagues mocked me because now Apple would be no different to any PC.
I told them then that it would only be a stopgap until Apple developed their own chips because Intel won’t be giving Apple what they needed. I told them straight up Apple would get to that decision within 10 years.
I was bang on. 10 years from 2006 was 2016. Given that Apple said it took 5 years of development that means 2015 was when they realised they could pull it off.
All the chip manufacturers have rested on their laurels because why rock the boat when the fish are just jumping in?
This attitude has NEVER served Apple and so they just make what they want. We’ve seen it time after time and to doubt Apple is folly. The industry is only just waking up to this now which is far too late.
It’s exactly what o think it is. As part of ieee, Apple has always been about developing things for the hood of people, not just proprietary standards. Universal standards. Working with others to ensure its everything it needs to be is also an Apple hallmark.
Apple fought against standard connectors for iPhones, iPads, and accessories for 15 years after agreed to follow standards. A lot of e-waste caused by proprietary connectors and chargers and more so for all those proprietary chargers and dongles the Mac had for decades before USB-C and DisplayPort.
Apple is mainly about Apple and keeping products nice but plan for something even nicer or more Pro/Max/Ultra to replace them. Mediocre by design.... someone should write a book.
Apple has had to develop their own cables because the existing stuff sucked.
If you don’t count the FireWire iPod Apple has only ever had 3 types of cables for every iPad and iPod and iPhone ever - 4 if you count USB-C but that’s not every model yet.
USB-micro and USB-mini were the worst cables ever to grace our planet and so Apple was never going to implement such a crap standard.
And let’s not forget that, prior to adopting USB-micro, Nokia had a different communications cable for EVERY SINGLE MODEL they produced. You call Apple out for land waste? You clearly don’t know history.
I’m sure Broadcom knows that Apple probably won’t leave it at that…….
Interesting it says specifically 5G radio frequency parts. As in Apple will build the modem part with say all the other wireless handling themselves. Instead of buying current parts they could build a lot more into the Mseries and Aseries SoC going forward
It’s exactly what o think it is. As part of ieee, Apple has always been about developing things for the hood of people, not just proprietary standards. Universal standards. Working with others to ensure its everything it needs to be is also an Apple hallmark.
Apple fought against standard connectors for iPhones, iPads, and accessories for 15 years after agreed to follow standards. A lot of e-waste caused by proprietary connectors and chargers and more so for all those proprietary chargers and dongles the Mac had for decades before USB-C and DisplayPort.
Apple is mainly about Apple and keeping products nice but plan for something even nicer or more Pro/Max/Ultra to replace them. Mediocre by design.... someone should write a book.
I’d say that Apple is a product company and will do whatever it takes to produce products that are superior to the competition while still making healthy profits and delivering value to their shareholders. If they have to invent new technology, innovate around existing technology, or buy technology from others to achieve those goals, they will absolutely do it. Everything they do is in pursuit of building products, not acquiring and licensing technology. That’s Qualcomm’s gig.
2027 is the distant future in the chip design, prototype, and manufacturing world that I grew up in (CPUs and ASICs). At the very least, this date suggests that the design is not finished and a prototype or a related test chip has not been fabricated or tested. What has Apple been doing since it bought the Intel modem team five-ish years ago? Something doesn’t make sense.
Apple likely moved past the 5g minefield by developing a 6g modem and will license 5g patents for a limited time.
In 2027, it will be time for a new standard, with 5g having lasted a year or more longer than 4g as the top dog.
Can’t wait. Tired of Qualcomm’s tech stifling innovation.
Kuo is directly saying “5G” modems, and, isn’t 6G still 5 to 10 years out? Then, is there anything interesting with 6G at 500 MHz to 5 GHz frequencies?
For me, I’d like to see more power efficient wireless connections and ubiquitous coverage. Bandwidth isn’t a big feature anymore. So, if Apple can produce highly efficient 5G modems that supports networks everywhere, that’s good enough.
That’s because he has no other info and apple WAS working on 5g before deciding the patents they bought weren’t doing them any favors.
Working on developing an all new 5g modem at this point is foolish. That’s not a word to describe apple. Outside of rare misses like the AVP, They’re always looking ahead. “Skating to where the puck will be, not where it has been.”
Qualcomm has the upper hand with 5g. Apple is moving past them. It’s nearly time for a superior standard anyway. The company that gave us the true personal computer, mainstream GUI, the mouse, airdrop, FireWire, thunderbolt, the smartphone as we know it today, numerous video standards, the first trackpad laptop, the first multitouch mouse with 360 scroll, was integral to the birth of WiFi, mini DisplayPort, Unicode, TrueType, openCL, HLS live streaming, upended the CPU and GPU industries with its own powerful yet efficient silicon, and much more - and is renown for eliminating old, archaic tech that holds the industries back, and makes the most reliable products in the industries it operates in. THIS company? Yeah, they’ll do fine front-running a new, superior communications chip as the standard for the following decade or so.
No, 6g isn’t 10 years out. By 2027, 5g will have been the top standard longer than 4g was. If anything, 5g has been the top tier too long. The rate of technology improvement should increase, not decrease, and Apple is a company known for pushing the envelope - and sometimes just tearing the envelope up and making a better one.
Last but not least, you seem to remember that “good enough” is not in Apples vocabulary. They’re more about “insanely great” achievements.
I'm not sure Apple's intent is what you think it is. A modem yes, but not taking on a 6G standard of their own.
It’s exactly what o think it is. As part of ieee, Apple has always been about developing things for the hood of people, not just proprietary standards. Universal standards. Working with others to ensure its everything it needs to be is also an Apple hallmark.
And yet, I don’t hear about any possible standards partner doing the heavy lifting of actually making 6G work. So while there is a brain trust, there is one spearhead actually bringing it to reality. It will take big telecoms like ATT to roll it out and install the tech in transmitters/receivers. Eventually Verizon and everyone else wil be on board too.
In the end, not only will Apple be a dominant contributor to the standard, they will have the modem tech. It could be that the majority of 6g modems are provided by Apple beyond Apple devices.
As you move into industry standards, things change a lot. Backwards compatibility and long term support are absolutes.
Apple hasn't done that in historical terms. It's the complete opposite. Drop technology, move on and leave users high and dry.
...
I once ran into some very nasty iTunes/iPhone/Mac OS problems for which Apple and its geniuses had no solution.
The problem was a new iPhone needed a new version of iTunes on the Mac. Once installed, iTunes needed a new version of Mac OS to connect to the iPhone. That wasn't possible because that Mac couldn't run the version of MacOS that was needed.
By that time Apple had already nuked the contents of the of the 'old' iPhone (it was a tradein) and I was in shit street.
This, after explaining everything to Apple in store (forewarning them) and asking for confirmation that the setup process would work. I was told not to worry by the smiley Apple guy who had literally never even seen the laptop I brought with me before.
All Apple was interested in was 'the sale', and all of my doubts fell on deaf ears because the guy doing the sale wasn't going to have to fix the problems. That fell on other people and after hours of trying I was asked to book an appointment with tech support and got a shrug of the shoulders. This was after speaking to a genius!
Apple had their money and that was it!
The weird thing is that if I had been a Windows iPhone user I wouldn't have had any of those problems because the same version of iTunes that the iPhone needed was compatible with Windows all the way back to XP!
What Apple was 'pushing' for in this situation was for me to upgrade, not only to a new iPhone but also a new Mac.
In the end I fixed the problems myself at home because I'd taken some steps before surrendering the old iPhone. So much for genius advice!
That is a prime example of Apple and lack of backwards compatibility. That won't cut it in industry. Not at all.
...
I can totally understand this, having experienced similar myself. The situation with Apple hardware and software compatibility is VERY COMPLEX in some cases. I've even created several documents (charts, spreadsheets) with compatibility versions for some situations -- as which particular MacOS X version, SW version (iTunes in several cases), which iPhone model and iOS version. All to try to figure out for myself and for some folks I help which hardware and software may work together.
Sadly, such info is not well nor clearly documented by Apple, and the support folks I've talked with have not been sure either.
So often their suggestion is using the official sales manual response: "just update everything to the "latest version", and then it'll all work." Well, maybe, or not.
It does seem that someone in the executive Suite has decided to push for faster obsoleting (word?) of hardware, and reduced work on compatibility, since they are all pushing for new hardware sales.
Comments
https://www.lightreading.com/security/apple-google-start-working-on-6g
https://nextgalliance.org/
Apple is mainly about Apple and keeping products nice but plan for something even nicer or more Pro/Max/Ultra to replace them. Mediocre by design.... someone should write a book.
I remember when gas station, big box stores, grocery stores, and mailbox stores, and countless other places would have walls and carousels of cellphone chargers in impossible to open plastic containers. Each had different connectors attached to a different PSU. Sometimes there was more than one model it worked for but they were very close in all regards, but usually even within the same vendor there were dozens of possible options you had use. And if the PSU died or the cable broke you had to replace the whole thing, unless Apple offering them as separate items, which I think extended back to the original iPod which came with a PSU with FW-400 cable for charging, that same cable for fast data transfer from a Mac and USB-A 1.0 for data transfer from a PC, if memory serves.
6G is still in the development and early standardisation process. That is why you can't 'see' any heavy lifting. However, believe me. There is. Lots of it, but the last time I checked the main 6G patent players, Apple wasn't in the top 20.
That was 2022 and the listing was:
Carriers do NOT want an early roll out of 6G. They want to recoup their investments on 5G first and 5.5G is due for next year. 6G won't be here before 2030 IMO.
Apple isn't really pushing fundamental research like the other big players. It's more of an applied research company and mostly in the CE realm.
You have little to no 'responsibility' there and can create and drop products easily. The users get the short end of the stick and have to adapt.
As you move into industry standards, things change a lot. Backwards compatibility and long term support are absolutes.
Apple hasn't done that in historical terms. It's the complete opposite. Drop technology, move on and leave users high and dry.
That's what happened with Firewire. When Steve Jobs announced Apple’s first laptop without Firewire there were folks on Apple's own Firewire mailing lists that were unaware of the change! Various companies had to cancel products late into the development phase because suddenly the number of Firewire ports available on the market was going to be affected and those products wouldn't be commercially viable. Imagine the costs involved in developing a product and having to cancel it because no one told you about the plans to phase out a vital connection technology. The pushback on that decision was so great that Apple actually backtracked and re-introduced Firewire on the next upgrade but the damage had been done. That is Apple and not long after Firewire was history.
The Sawtooth Macs had internal Firewire ports and not even Apple provided a product that could use them.
The other side of the technology coin is the licencing. Apple ruined the chances of Firewire getting adopted more widely because of a terrible licencing policy.
By the time the HANA alliance came about or products like the Sony LISSA it was too late. Even with the corrections to licencing. Always too late.
USB2 was dominating and Apple was basically last to that party, causing yet more frustration for users who were seeing cheap USB2 devices flood the market and not able to use them.
I once ran into some very nasty iTunes/iPhone/Mac OS problems for which Apple and its geniuses had no solution.
The problem was a new iPhone needed a new version of iTunes on the Mac. Once installed, iTunes needed a new version of Mac OS to connect to the iPhone. That wasn't possible because that Mac couldn't run the version of MacOS that was needed.
By that time Apple had already nuked the contents of the of the 'old' iPhone (it was a tradein) and I was in shit street.
This, after explaining everything to Apple in store (forewarning them) and asking for confirmation that the setup process would work. I was told not to worry by the smiley Apple guy who had literally never even seen the laptop I brought with me before.
All Apple was interested in was 'the sale', and all of my doubts fell on deaf ears because the guy doing the sale wasn't going to have to fix the problems. That fell on other people and after hours of trying I was asked to book an appointment with tech support and got a shrug of the shoulders. This was after speaking to a genius!
Apple had their money and that was it!
The weird thing is that if I had been a Windows iPhone user I wouldn't have had any of those problems because the same version of iTunes that the iPhone needed was compatible with Windows all the way back to XP!
What Apple was 'pushing' for in this situation was for me to upgrade, not only to a new iPhone but also a new Mac.
In the end I fixed the problems myself at home because I'd taken some steps before surrendering the old iPhone. So much for genius advice!
That is a prime example of Apple and lack of backwards compatibility. That won't cut it in industry. Not at all.
Apple is moving upstream in terms of influence in standardization but not by design. Apple had zero intention of that. It was the result of strategic goofs and having no option but to try an go it alone.
It will have to collaborate and being so late to this field, has very little accumulated knowhow.
Realistically speaking it will be almost impossible to compete with Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson, Intel etc.
It might be able to ship a modem but let's not forget that Intel shipped modems for Apple for years but they never ever touched anything that Qualcomm produced in terms of performance.
I do know Apple is working with Huawei in the EU on Network Sensing research but everyone in the field is working on network sensing as it will be a major part of 6G for industry and domestic users.
I told them then that it would only be a stopgap until Apple developed their own chips because Intel won’t be giving Apple what they needed. I told them straight up Apple would get to that decision within 10 years.
I was bang on. 10 years from 2006 was 2016. Given that Apple said it took 5 years of development that means 2015 was when they realised they could pull it off.
All the chip manufacturers have rested on their laurels because why rock the boat when the fish are just jumping in?
This attitude has NEVER served Apple and so they just make what they want. We’ve seen it time after time and to doubt Apple is folly. The industry is only just waking up to this now which is far too late.
They are the hare to Apple’s tortoise.
If you don’t count the FireWire iPod Apple has only ever had 3 types of cables for every iPad and iPod and iPhone ever - 4 if you count USB-C but that’s not every model yet.
USB-micro and USB-mini were the worst cables ever to grace our planet and so Apple was never going to implement such a crap standard.
And let’s not forget that, prior to adopting USB-micro, Nokia had a different communications cable for EVERY SINGLE MODEL they produced. You call Apple out for land waste? You clearly don’t know history.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/05/apple-announces-multibillion-dollar-deal-with-broadcom/#:~:text=Today Apple announced a new,cutting-edge wireless connectivity components.
https://www.iam-media.com/article/who-will-own-6g-and-the-future?
https://www.rcrwireless.com/20240715/6g/china-claims-world-first-field-test-network-6g-communications
The situation with Apple hardware and software compatibility is VERY COMPLEX in some cases.
I've even created several documents (charts, spreadsheets) with compatibility versions for some situations -- as which particular MacOS X version, SW version (iTunes in several cases), which iPhone model and iOS version. All to try to figure out for myself and for some folks I help which hardware and software may work together.