According to a report from Reuters, Intel has stated that they will begin to send out 5G modem samples to clients this year, and the chips will not be ready for phones before 2020. This is quite the blow for Intel’s clients, especially Apple because the iPhone maker uses Intel modems in its iPhones. This suggests that 5G connectivity will not make its way into iPhones until next year.
Due to this delay, Apple has spoken to MediaTek and Samsung to possibly use their 5G modems in this year’s iPhone offerings, per Reuters. It’s unclear if those discussions with Samsung and MediaTek ever materialized into agreements for Apple to include 5G in this year’s iPhones.
If Apple sticks to using Intel’s 5G modems, we will not see 5G capabilities in this year’s iPhones. In contrast, Samsung has already begun offering 5G connectivity in the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G model. The Galaxy S10 5G smartphone will start shipping in the next few months.
With wireless carriers such as Verizon and AT&T just getting their 5G networks off the ground, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to see Apple wait out another year to offer 5G in the iPhones brought in 2020.
