Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Future Apple Vision Pro Could Have 5G Modem
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Data limits would have to go up significantly (at least for my house) before this would be viable. Not to mention, I’d still need my own local network.
M-m-m, separate subscription fees for every device. Unstable and slow connections. Getting throttled during peak hours. Every device open to public network. Yes, please!
Sometimes I forget that there are people who don’t use ethernet cables. Why pay for high speed internet and then not use it? Wireless is not fast enough or reliable enough for the work I do. Cellular is definitely not even an option. Telling me I can just use cellular internet is like telling me I don’t need monitors anymore because my phone has a screen.
Can’t see it happening. Maybe if we run fibre to every home and put a micro 5g cell in each house (basically what wifi is)
The amount of capacity fixed line moves is insane. Maybe for people who are very light users sure, but if we dumped every user who uses 500-1000gb+ a month on mobile networks you’d soon have areas needing more and more capacity and smaller, closer cells
I'm still waiting to see visionOS get continuity so I can at least answer a phone call like I can do on my other apple devices.
Honestly I figured this was their plan all along, it's how they will be able to sell a lot more of them. It's how they sell so many watches afterall. Very few people are going to cough up $400+ for a watch, so of course very few people will cough up the $1500-2000 that this Vision product would be, so why not subsidize it like they do the watch?
Actually that's an interesting idea!
In case Apple is confident with the new modem it could likely be that more devices get a 5G connection. I'd love to have my MacBook Pro 5G enabled as well. Once it's the own chip it could land in products that never got 5G connectivity at all.
A MacBook Pro with M5 Max and 5G connectivity would be gorgeous and I would buy that immediately.
An AVP with 5G is of minor interest to me since I am not taking it out in the wild and in planes or on vacation I always have WiFi available - with the Mac i would love to have 5G everywhere and WiFi only in case the 5G connection is slower.
My contract allows for further three data devices beyond garage, three iPads and two AWs and one phone - I'd love to have 5G built into mobile devices - on the AVP I am not so sure that it would change the usability provided it stays as big and heavy as it is now and the lower cost variant would likely use an iPhone as driver anyway
In case Apple is confident with the new modem it could likely be that more devices get a 5G connection. I'd love to have my MacBook Pro 5G enabled as well. Once it's the own chip it could land in products that never got 5G connectivity at all.
A MacBook Pro with M5 Max and 5G connectivity would be gorgeous and I would buy that immediately.
An AVP with 5G is of minor interest to me since I am not taking it out in the wild and in planes or on vacation I always have WiFi available - with the Mac i would love to have 5G everywhere and WiFi only in case the 5G connection is slower.
My contract allows for further three data devices beyond garage, three iPads and two AWs and one phone - I'd love to have 5G built into mobile devices - on the AVP I am not so sure that it would change the usability provided it stays as big and heavy as it is now and the lower cost variant would likely use an iPhone as driver anyway
Yeah cause the thing that the AVP needs most is worse battery life
An upcoming version of the Apple Vision Pro headset could be equipped with a custom-designed Apple modem chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In a report on Apple's plans for its in-house modem, Gurman said that Apple is "discussing" bringing cellular support to future Vision Pro models.
An Apple-designed modem chip is set to debut in 2025 iPhone SE, low-cost iPad, and iPhone 17 "Air" models, and from there, Apple will iterate on the design and expand the technology to other devices.
The first version of the modem chip will only have slower sub-6GHz 5G connectivity, but a second-generation model will support the faster mmWave 5G speeds, and a third-generation version in 2027 could match or exceed Qualcomm technology. The first 5G chip from Apple isn't likely to be used in a Vision Pro headset, but the second-generation or third-generation versions could be integrated into the Vision Pro, and also future Macs.
Further in the future, Apple could also add its custom modem chip to augmented reality glasses, but that product is still several years away.
Apple's ultimate goal is to phase out Qualcomm 5G modem chips, replacing them with its own modem chips. Because cellular connectivity is integral to the iPhone, Apple plans to test its modem technology in lower volume, lower cost products to start with.
The first version of the modem chip is smaller and more integrated with other components that are designed by Apple, but it is not as advanced as Qualcomm's 5G modem chips. Apple modem chips coming in 2026 and 2027 will be more advanced, and eventually, Apple could merge its A-series and M-series with its custom modem chips, developing a single component that would be integrated into its products.
A second-generation Vision Pro headset could launch as early as 2025, with Apple adding an M5 chip but few design changes, but rumors on the future of the Vision Pro have been unclear with some sources pointing toward a Vision Pro 2, and others suggesting Apple wants to focus on a lower-cost model.
Apple is said to be developing a lower-cost version of the Vision Pro that uses more affordable components, and Gurman has said it could come as soon as 2025. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo does not believe that a cheaper Vision Pro will come out until after 2027, however. It is not clear when the Vision Pro could get 5G technology.
Article Link: Future Apple Vision Pro Could Have 5G Modem
Have you found a carrier in the United States that does not throttle your speed? I’d love to know what car that would be. Every time I switch policies, they promised no throttling with unlimited high speed and yet the data turtle’s like maple tree sap in Vermont in March
Use Mobile X. They use verizons network and have usage based data only plans (as well as automatic) I pay $2 a month for 1 gb to use as a backup for my server if the internet goes down.
Correct, and more to the point of this AVP rumor, realistically replacing current wireline/fiber+wifi with cellular won’t happen for years after any rumored AVP released in 2025-2027 becomes obsolete.
Not really supported by physics. Wires or optical cable will always have superior bandwidth.
And reliability/consistency of bandwidth.
If by "Apple sees this" you mean "Apple would like to profit off selling everyone cellular on every device, and carriers would love to profit off selling everyone a discrete connection for every device" ... then I would agree
I am quite skeptical we are close to any networks being even remotely capable of handling all the devices connected all the time. We are talking about orders of magnitude more connections than are currently taking place, not to mention the power requirements and connection quality issues for entire classes of products
Put another way ... it sounds good to just "connect everything to internet everywhere", until one starts even briefly analyzing the challenges and drawbacks
We aren't close
Christ. I really should finish my morning coffee before reading anything.Tin foil balaclava accessory incoming.
All I saw was “baklava” and thought about how nice it might be with the coffee I was sipping. 😁
