According to recent reports, it has been suggested that Apple’s 5G iPhones might only arrive in 2020. This is due to an agreement that Apple has arrived with Qualcomm in a settlement which will allow Apple to license Qualcomm’s tech, which would help the company with their 5G iPhones.However, we have also heard the rumors that Apple could be looking to develop their own 5G modems. This is very much like what we’d expect from Apple, but don’t expect to see them anytime soon. According to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, he claims that Apple’s own 5G modems might only arrive in either 2022 or 2023.
Kuo claims that this is also part of the settlement agreement between Apple and Qualcomm, where according to the analyst, “We believe that the content of Apple and Qualcomm’s previous settlement includes Qualcomm’s release of partly 5G baseband chip source code to Apple for Apple’s development of its own 5G PA/FEM.”
We had heard rumors that Apple could be interested in acquiring Intel’s 5G modem business, or at least part of it, which should give Apple the resources they need to help the development of their 5G tech. Needless to say this should be taken with a grain of salt, but at the rate 5G is being rolled out, it’ll probably be a couple of years before it will reach the masses.