Alchemy

MplsP said:

I've asked this question repeatedly and have yet to see a single person answer - what legitimate need is there to have speeds in excess of LTE speeds for a smart phone? Yes, 5G is theoretically faster, but LTE is fast enough for everything you do on a smart phone. It has lower latency, but latency isn't an issue for smart phone use either. It has higher bandwidth, but the majority of the time, the wireless bandwidth isn't the limiting factor. So I'm left to see 5g as a transition to something that allows future growth but has no current or near-term real-world use. 

friedmud said:

Makes sens to me.  I develop massively parallel scientific computing applications to run on some of the largest supercomputers in the world.  Nearly everyone in this field uses Mac laptops and workstation... and then runs on the Linux based supercomputers.

Why?  Because they're UNIX based.  So we can develop our software in a UNIX environment but still have all the GUI goodness of OSX and still have access to Microsoft Office (which everyone hates - but you still have to use).  Oh - and they "just work" with roaming wifi and random projectors (which _still_ cannot be said of Linux laptops yet... sigh).

Microsoft has recently realized this (they don't care about scientific computing though - but the same is true in web-programming where the servers that are targeted are running Linux)... and finally made a decent Windows Subsystem for Linux.  It's not 100%... but it's way better than any alternatives from before (... Cygwin).

Also: this is an awesome achievement!  Congratulations Katie and the rest of the team!

MplsP said:

Alchemy said:

MplsP said:

I've asked this question repeatedly and have yet to see a single person answer - what legitimate need is there to have speeds in excess of LTE speeds for a smart phone? Yes, 5G is theoretically faster, but LTE is fast enough for everything you do on a smart phone. It has lower latency, but latency isn't an issue for smart phone use either. It has higher bandwidth, but the majority of the time, the wireless bandwidth isn't the limiting factor. So I'm left to see 5g as a transition to something that allows future growth but has no current or near-term real-world use. 

It is foolish to assume that just because you don't see a real need doesn't mean that it will not be utilized.  No one could image using a phone for real time streaming of videos just a few years ago.

There are real needs and perceived needs (or wants).  Do people really need mini video clips for ever picture they take, do they need bokeh effect on their pictures, do they need to video conference multiple friends, etc....  It all comes down to marketing the latest technology when you are expecting people to pay $1,000+ for a phone.  People need to feel that their old phone is no longer good enough and that they "need" the latest technology.  The next big jump in technology (out side of camera tricks) is 5G.  People hold onto their phones for several years and they will not be interested upgrading to the next iPhone if it is considered obsolete.  It will be considered obsolete if it doesn't have 5G, because customers have been told it is coming soon.

I don't deny that some heretofore unconsidered application may arise. There are plenty of examples of that in technology. My point is that there is no current use. 5G is not a technology that is rolling out to finally make cellphones do what people have been trying to do but haven't been able to because of technology limitations. That being the case, any future, real-world uses for the technology in cell phones will take at least a few years to develop and won't even start to develop until there is some semblance of availability of 5G. We're looking at at least mid to late 2020, likely 2021 at the earliest for that to happen, any of these unknown uses will likely not become widespread until 2022 or 2023 at the earliest. at that point, we're 4 years out. Add to that that the 5G standards haven't even been finalized and the fact that the first people who actually (try) to make use of new features like this tend to be early adopters that upgrade their phones more frequently. The end conclusion that I draw is that not only is including a 5G modem in a 2019 phone essentially useless, there may well be drawbacks due to the fact that the standards, technology and chip designs are all still developing. 

It would seem the biggest reason to include 5G is so you can claim that you have it, not because it's actually necessary. I've been around long enough not to care about things like that.

Edit: If other countries roll out the technology faster than here in the US, that could change the development equation and would certainly affect the iPhone's marketability in those countries. My view is an admittedly America-Centric one.