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In February 2019, the first 5G smartphones appear on the market. They will be much faster than 4G models. But not every company can jump aboard the 5G car right away. Apple seems to be waiting until 2020 to release an iPhone with 5G for a number of reasons.

Fast Company states that Apple will have to wait, because chippartner Intel only plans to release a working 5G modem in the course of 2020. Intel is struggling to develop a good modem, which was the case when the XMM8060 was only announced for larger devices than smartphones. It is currently working on a smaller and more efficient XMM8161, which Apple will use to test prototype 5G iPhones.

Problems for Apple

Apple seems to be especially dissatisfied with two things about the XMM8060. The modems would have a hard time getting rid of their heat, so phones sometimes feel very hot. In addition, the chip uses a lot of power, which leads to poorer battery performance. Apple finds this very annoying of course, but according to Fast Company Intel gives one and a half year to solve the problems.

Difficult for Apple in this case is that it also has a dispute with Qualcomm. It is working with no less than twenty companies on the development of the new generation of smartphones. The chances are slim that Apple will be able to join them. After all, there is an ever-increasing conflict between companies regarding patents and trade secrets. Because of these conflicts, Apple decided not to work with Qualcomm for the iPhones it released this year and does not want to use Qualcomm technology in its 5G phones.

In the meantime, Apple is lagging behind the competition. Huawei, Motorola, Samsung and Xiaomi are all planning to release their first 5G phones in early 2019. By then, there will only be a few cities in the world with working 5G networks, so the phones will offer limited 5G functionality.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.