For the longest time Apple has been silent in its 5G ambitions but it looks like that silence has been broken now with the company announcing that it will include 5G modems in its next generation iPhones come 2022.
Though this is not to say a total surprise, Apple did after all buy Intel’s 5G modem business in early 2019, but the aggressive timeline is a surprise given the amount of development, testing and certification needed.
At present, Apple is using Intel modems on the current iPhone 11 series.
Another surprise is news that next year’s iPhone will use 5G modems from Qualcomm. This followed a legal squabble between the two companies but they have since made up in April.
Apple’s ambitious plans to roll out a 5G modem of its own is very aggressive and while it would be ideal to have an integrated 5G solution on a single chip, the reality is that Apple might release a standalone 5G modem first in 2022 before releasing an integrated solution the following year.
