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Apple knows 5G is about infrastructure, Not mobile phones

2 points by evo_9 8y ago

Nokinside 8y ago
Apple was behind even in LTE adoption, so it's not a big deal. 5G marketers really dropped the ball if even people like Cringley can't think anything other than bandwidth. 5G phone can use 5G features as an anchor for services that go trough 4G network, Wi-Fi when 5G NR is not present. 5G is designed with small home cells in mind, so there is potential for quick indoor takeoff. Another question is of how fast services using 5G will emerge. If could services similar to Cloudflare's workers or AWS Lambda can be pushed into the edge computing, you have soon very low latency services that make 5G phones appear to user like very powerful computers with low latency.
__d 8y ago
I think the more interesting question is how fast Apple can get its own radio hardware online. I think the switch to Intel is just a softening-up tactic in the battle with Qualcomm, which is really about licensing their patents at a reasonable price-per-chip for Apple's own 5G (or 5G+) implementation. It's not clear how long Apple has been working on a baseband controller, but it's not something that can be done quickly. I doubt it'll be 2021, or even 2022. But it's a significant non-Apple component with plenty of room to innovate, so it seems inevitable that they'll tackle it sooner or later. In the meantime, they'll use Intel's hardware until they get a deal with Qualcomm. No-one buys an iPhone to have the latest-and-greatest technical specs: the lack of 5G won't hurt them in the short term. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/apple-deleted-job-listing-shows-plans-design-5g-modem-2018-4 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/apple-deleted-job-listing... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-15/apple-recruiting-chip-engineers-to-work-in-qualcomm-s-backyard https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-15/apple-rec... https://www.technobuffalo.com/2018/11/16/apple-hiring-san-diego-qualcomm-5g-modem/ https://www.technobuffalo.com/2018/11/16/apple-hiring-san-di...

2 points by evo_9 8y ago

Apple was behind even in LTE adoption, so it's not a big deal. 5G marketers really dropped the ball if even people like Cringley can't think anything other than bandwidth. 5G phone can use 5G features as an anchor for services that go trough 4G network, Wi-Fi when 5G NR is not present. 5G is designed with small home cells in mind, so there is potential for quick indoor takeoff. Another question is of how fast services using 5G will emerge. If could services similar to Cloudflare's workers or AWS Lambda can be pushed into the edge computing, you have soon very low latency services that make 5G phones appear to user like very powerful computers with low latency.

__d 8y ago

I think the more interesting question is how fast Apple can get its own radio hardware online. I think the switch to Intel is just a softening-up tactic in the battle with Qualcomm, which is really about licensing their patents at a reasonable price-per-chip for Apple's own 5G (or 5G+) implementation. It's not clear how long Apple has been working on a baseband controller, but it's not something that can be done quickly. I doubt it'll be 2021, or even 2022. But it's a significant non-Apple component with plenty of room to innovate, so it seems inevitable that they'll tackle it sooner or later. In the meantime, they'll use Intel's hardware until they get a deal with Qualcomm. No-one buys an iPhone to have the latest-and-greatest technical specs: the lack of 5G won't hurt them in the short term. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/apple-deleted-job-listing-shows-plans-design-5g-modem-2018-4 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/apple-deleted-job-listing... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-15/apple-recruiting-chip-engineers-to-work-in-qualcomm-s-backyard https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-15/apple-rec... https://www.technobuffalo.com/2018/11/16/apple-hiring-san-diego-qualcomm-5g-modem/ https://www.technobuffalo.com/2018/11/16/apple-hiring-san-di...