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Apple to Wait Until at Least 2020 to Release 5G iPhones

What good is a theoretically significant higher speed if the network can't deliver it to the user?
I'll be happy the moment 4G delivers the promised coverage and speed..
 
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It's not a big deal if Apple decides to wait until 2020 to offer 5G. The ones who will benefit with 5G next year are those who live in large cities where it will roll out first. With that said, there are other areas that still have poor reception and/or not good coverage so it doesn't matter whether it's 4G or 5G. When the dust settles with the dispute between Apple and Qualcomm, we'll have a better idea when Apple will roll out with the 5G on the iPhones. If Qualcomm's chip are the best one available, then this is what I'd want, however, I do hope Intel get their act together and provide one that would be just as good.
 
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"5G advocates argue that delaying support for the upcoming network upgrade is a bigger risk for Apple, since it represents a much bigger speed boost over previous generations, making the leap from 4G to 5G significant enough to become a major selling point for new devices."

I call bull on this statement.

I'm generally totally fine with 4G now as it is. I never think that my connection is too slow or I'm waiting for things to download. Even like a 60 MB app will download in seconds (T-Mobile in the US here).

I remember being so hyped about getting a 4G phone. Now I really don't care. It will be cool but it's not something I'm really excited about to be honest.
 
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macsrcool1234 said:
5G is meaningless. Burn through data caps faster. LTE is more than fast enough for anything a phone would need to do.
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A phone of 2018 - maybe.
But things will change fast.
Here in Switzerland we get 5G during 2019.
Just like 4G, it will be available everywhere - in the glacier caves, on the highest snowy peaks, in the forests and valleys, in the villages and cities.
Glad that iPhone will come soon after :rolleyes:
1111.JPG
 
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kildraik said:
5G is pointless, expensive and invasive to implement, extremely unhealthy, and in general a new machine for patent profits. Im still confused why there isn’t a serious backlash.
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Sorry but 5G is coming whether anyone likes it or not, and there haven’t been any legitamite cases where LTE or even NR has caused damage to people. Non-ionizing radiation is just that — no ability to ionize cells and no ability to cause cancer. It is also expensive, but so was the upgrade from 3G/HSPA to LTE.
 
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For my uses, 5G would be overkill. I doubt I even come close to the max speed of 4G. I could see maybe for 4K video streaming, but I don't have anything that's 4K.

Plus, I'll wait until there's better coverage & higher data caps. I'm on AT&T, where there's a 5 GB plan, a 9 GB, and an "unlimited" plan that throttles you after 22 GB. With 5G, people will blow through that extremely quickly. I have Comcast for home internet, and I think I get a 250 GB cap with that. When I can get that kind of cap, I might switch.
 
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kildraik said:
5G is pointless, expensive and invasive to implement, extremely unhealthy, and in general a new machine for patent profits. Im still confused why there isn’t a serious backlash.
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IMO, the lack of backlash is due to a general lack of information. Anyway, 5G is currently only available in 4 markets. It will be interesting to see the speed of the roll-out. As of right now, if appears that the utility of a 5G phone might be quite limited until sometime in 2020.
 
I'm not sure what the hoopla is about 5G or this Apple announcement.

  1. I live in New England with an iPhone 7 Plus and the AT&T speeds are fine for me doing email, texting, making calls, surfing the web, and watching Youtube. If it's anything I need, it's more coverage in the very (and even not-so) rural towns near me but if it's not here now, it's probably never coming anyway.
  2. As someone mentioned, 5G speeds are really designed for home internet service. Everyone likes faster this and faster that, but if my 7 Plus streams just fine, what is 5G going to offer? 3 seconds faster to download that 20MB attachment? I'm not dropping $1100 for that kind of feature.
  3. 5G is either currently beta or brand spanking new in the various states of the USA, right? All 50 states aren't going to magically become 5G enabled with a single mouse click on 1 day. It's going to take years to roll it out to *everyone*. Sure, the classic 3-5 cities will get it first but that's not 100% of the USA cellphone user base.
  4. I can't even tell you what ATT provides me on a 2-hour road trip...4G or LTE. But when I have service, my phone works perfectly 100% fine. There is likely a huge customer base like me (and I'm very computer savvy) that has no idea what my cell service network technology is and really don't care...because currently it all works just fine.
  5. On a related note, WIFI is practically everywhere. Your home, office, hotels, planes, gas stations, restaurants, and even buses. Most often it is free. I use about 3GB of data per month on my phone because I'm always on WIFI (my home, my office, my relative's homes) and the iPhone just connects to WIFI when available. Most likely WIFI is faster now than 4G or LTE and it may be even faster when 5G finally gets major coverage in 2020-2022 in the USA. But the other factor about WIFI is that it saves your cell data plan.
  6. Given all the above (or even just a few points), who's salivating for 5G other than the 1% that are bandwidth hogs and/or want to use 5G as their home internet provider? I have a home internet connection of 200Mbit down/10Mbit up. Sure, I'd love to have 1Gbit or faster down, but my multiple laptops, iPhones, iPads, 2 AppleTVs, and desktop work just fine. Every. Day. My desktop is the only item that maxes out my downstream connection when I download large files (4GB-12GB per file) every day. I get about 25MBytes/sec which is quite nice. Sure, I'd always welcome more speed but again that is for my desktop. What exactly does my iPhone need these blazing speeds for? If AT&T wants to provide me with 5G coverage for my home internet use and give me 1TB of data download per month (that's not a typo) with no speed degradation, and cost less than $100 a month, sign me up. Right now my 200Mbit is $60/month.
 
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Who´s surprised? Thats´s what happens when today´s Intel is involved.
 
The iPhone is a high end phone and as such we should expect technologies that might not be mature yet. When buying a phone you expect it to last for several years so having a 5G compatible phone in 2019 is important even if 5G doesn't really expand until 2020 or 2021.
 
rednif said:
I have a hard time thinking of possible benefits 5G has over 4G for consumers. What would I do on the go that requires such speed in the next three years?
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5G is not just for people on the go. Many people who do not get good fibre internet speeds will use 5G modems at home instead. The benefits are faster home internet with no need for a landline whatsoever.
 
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I'm more interested in fixed home 5G -- finally real competition for high speed internet. For my iPhone? Sure, why not, but not all that excited about it, really.
 
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recoil80 said:
I'm fine with that, I have an Xs and don't need to upgrade every year. I'll buy my next iPhone in 2020 or 2021 and I'll get 5G
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Exactly how I feel. I spent a lot on this Xs Max. I’m happy to keep it till 2020 or 2021. I can’t afford to upgrade every year. 5g will be a nice incentive to do so.
 
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macsrcool1234 said:
5G is meaningless. Burn through data caps faster. LTE is more than fast enough for anything a phone would need to do.
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Why does having a faster connection make you burn through data caps much faster?

Are you planning on increasing the amount of Facebook and Instagram you consume? Watching MORE Netflix?

There are other bottlenecks in the system anyways for most services.
 
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Marzel said:
The iPhone is a high end phone and as such we should expect technologies that might not be mature yet. When buying a phone you expect it to last for several years so having a 5G compatible phone in 2019 is important even if 5G doesn't really expand until 2020 or 2021.
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Have to disagree, looking back at the 4G transition you don't want to have wonky 1st Gen 5G tech in a phone you sell to your customers to last for years.

This is exactly what happened with 1st Gen 4G Android handsets, they had power consumption problems and signal reception issues - don't want to put that bleeding edge tech into your top of the line handsets if you care about your customers.

Apple will do just fine waiting on 2nd generation 5G, just like they did with 4G - especially since most users won't see much of a benefit from 5G (video will stream just like before) and 4G will work just fine in the meantime.

guzhogi said:
...I have Comcast for home internet, and I think I get a 250 GB cap with that. When I can get that kind of cap, I might switch.
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Just as a FYI, Comcast went to a 1TB (1,0000 GB) data cap nationwide after some blowback on the 250GB cap being too small...this was several years ago.

Its so far away from the caps we run into with "unlimited" mobile caps as to be absurd - makes one wonder how the mobile providers are going to go after the cable / dsl market. They'd have to radically raise their data caps and then why wouldn't mobile users get those same caps...
 
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