As talks about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, the most-advanced yet heat up, a report about Apple working with Intel on the new generation 5G iPhone of the future has surfaced.
As per a report by Fast Company, Apple and Intel engineers have started working on 5G technology as Apple’s dialogue with Qualcomm has been limited post-their legal spat.
Intel, as per a report in the tech blog BGR, has an entire army working on 5G, with thousands of engineers engaged in the process.
The iPhone is a “must-win” for Intel, which has bigger plans in mind than just replacing Qualcomm on all iPhones. Right now, Apple uses both Qualcomm and Intel modems that allow the iPhone to connect to wireless networks.
After a lot of R&D investment, Qualcomm came up with the first 5G modem in October 2016.
The idea itself seems revolutionary. With 5G incorporation, an iPhone in theory, will be capable of connection speeds of one gigabyte per second or more. However, it has to be considered that the industry will still need time to adjust to the transition of a 5G connection.
The Fast Company report suggests that Intel could supply a 5G modem for an iPhone debuting in 2019 or in 2020.
Post-Qualcomm spat, is Apple an Intel loyalist?
Apple started using Intel chips in iPhone 7 and 7 plus and in its latest iPhone 8 and 8 plus it is using a combination of Qualcomm and Intel chips.
Apple and Qualcomm, meanwhile, have been in a dispute since the beginning of the year.
Earlier Apple had accused Qualcomm of charging high rates for its services. Apple also sued Qualcomm for over Rs 100 crore and had stopped paying the royalty charges, an act the latter termed as a tactic to exert pressure in order to decrease the charges.
Earlier, a report in MarketWatch said that Intel was working on an XMMM 8000-series of 5G capable modems that will introduce next-generation wireless connectivity for PCs, smartphones and infrastructure devices, with an expected launch date in 2019.
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