avon b7 said:

tmay said:

avon b7 said:

AppleExposed said:

avon b7 said:

It's a logical (and correct) move and better late than never.

At this rate they could end up around three years late to market

Love the cute little anti-Apple jabs. Remember Apple was 20 years late to the cell phone market and analysts claimed there was no way they would dethrone Motorola, Nokia and Blackberry.

Where are they now?

When Apple innovates they do it RIGHT. They can release a half-assed modem tomorrow just to make make morons think they're "first" or something stupid (think Samsung) but they have a bigger picture in mind.

You are confused. Companies or technologies? In this case, whatever Apple does will still use the same technology as competitors. In other words there is no disruption of any sort. Just catching up to competitors.

And to be honest they couldn't release a half assed modem tomorrow either. It has to go through long certification. That's how far behind they are and why an on SoC effort seems to be so far off.

Apple released, yet again, the most performant mobile ARM SOC in the world, the A13, and lacking a 5G modem isn't having much of an impact on sales, based on actual data. On the other hand, consumers that initially loathed the triple camera configuration of the iPhone 11 Pro, powered by the A13, have now become enthusiastic about it, and that design feature has become branding for Apple's iPhone 11 Pro.

Expect the Xerox machines to work overtime in China to copy Apple, yet again.

That's actually what innovation looks like.

A11, A12, A13.

Nothing changed. People didn't see the performance when everything was already fast.

One camera, two cameras, three cameras. People won't see the difference because the features are already available and have been available for years.

Almost two years ago (and even one month ago!) when the the iPhone was producing black images against the competition's night modes, the difference was dramatic.

Apple is catching up, and not having a 5G phone is just another example.

History will repeat itself. Not long ago people here were saying night mode wasn't of real note. It was 'meh!'. Now they rave about it. Now people say 5G only offers a speed increase over a system that already gives then enough speed. Mark my words. When Apple gets on the 5G train, people will rave about it too.

By then 5G will be on most new phones and outsiders will scratch their heads asking what the fuss is about when their mid range phones have had it for months and Apple's affordable phones chug along without 5G.

The same thing happened with battery life and charging.

As for looks. The design is ugly and no amount of spin and squinting (or alcohol!) will change that.

avon b7 said:

Wgkrueger said:

avon b7 said:

It's a logical (and correct) move and better late than never.

At this rate they could end up around three years late to market and going up against competing third or fourth generation integrated modems, but from a consumer perspective, performance isn't really that big of an issue (borne out by the intel experience) as long as the core technology is in the phone. Be it an on SoC Apple designed 5G multimode modem or a QC part which isn't on the SoC.

They will also have to make sure that the corresponding antennas do a great job too because antenna performance is important the user experience although most don't give it a second thought when buying a phone.

That's why the Mate 30 Pro 5G has 21 bleeding edge antennas in it. 14 alone for 5G, and antennas will be increasingly important as the industry moves to 5G.

A 5G Antenna white paper was officially released just two days ago at the Global Antenna Technology & Industry Forum held in Amsterdam.

https://www.huawei.com/ch-en/press-events/news/2019/10/huawei-5g-antenna-whitepaper

Lots of focus on success in the C band and AI and beam forming. A new commercially deployed 5G milestone was hit recently in Switzerland:

https://www.totaltele.com/503980/Sunrise-and-Huawei-hit-367Gbps-in-Swiss-5G-speed-tests

It won't be easy in the time frame suggested here but I think designing an in-house modem makes sense in the long run.

Being three years late to market might benefit Apple since the current crop of 5G cell phone modems are a hot mess right now. Kinda like being late to the folding cell phone market. 

The problem is that 5G cell modems aren't a 'hot mess'. The second gen Balong 5000 is already shipping - on SoC - and both Huawei and Qualcomm will be shifting huge numbers of 5G phones in the middle tiers within months:

https://www.electronicdesign.com/embedded-revolution/qualcomm-add-5g-modems-more-affordable-socs

Long before Apple gets its 5G QC modem onto the market, competitors will be flooding it with non flagship 5G products.

Rumours claim Huawei already has its 5nm Kirin 1000 in trial production and it is probable that a third generation Balong 5G chip will be on it.

Samsung and Mediatek also have their own efforts rolling out.