Kuo: Apple Looking to Save on Costs in iPhone 12 With Simpler Battery Board Design

[CarpalMac]

Are any consumers actually excited about 5G? Seems like the only people who care are cellular network executives. I love to have the latest tech, but have zero desire for a 5G phone and am really sick of hearing about it. Hopefully this ridiculous race to 5G won’t compromise the rest of the iPhone.

I would be happy if I ever got above 2.95Mbps with my provider. 3/4/5G, I couldn't give a flying monkey what they call it.

If the majority of people actually got anywhere near the advertised 4G speeds I don't imagine for one second there would be more than a small handful of people asking for faster on their phone. Someone, somewhere is getting their palms greased...

 

[Forti]

I would be happy if I ever got above 2.95Mbps with my provider. 3/4/5G, I couldn't give a flying monkey what they call it.

If the majority of people actually got anywhere near the advertised 4G speeds I don't imagine for one second there would be more than a small handful of people asking for faster. Someone, somewhere is getting their palms greased...

THIS is exactly my point! You can live in one of the big city around the world and you can use 4g / LTE without full speed AND STILL you will be able to watch 4k movie without bufforing.

5G for now it's just a marketing.

 

[aleni]

Geez. Apple fans fighting over rumors, meanwhile Tim Cook laughing with his thicc wallet.

To me, 5G doesn’t make sense yet in 2020. 95% of the earth isn’t covered by 5G yet. Apple do 5G because of pressure from other manufacturers. I’m sure Apple want to skip 5G because it doesn’t make sense to put one right now. Maybe next year, but the pressure from media is strong. Imagine a $1k iphone with no 5G and no 120hertz screen while the rest of the industry already have them. Media will eat Apple like crazy with no 5G and no high refresh rate screen as the cons on their reviews.

Steve Jobs on the other hand won’t care about being late to the game. Just like the original iPhone only had 2G while some of the competitors already had 3G.

 

[murad_fourth]

Come on!!! 2 Trillion dollar company and this is what we are getting (cheaper batteries). Apple you can do better, Don’t be Microsoft!! please.

What are you talking about? LOL. 🤣

 

[JPack]

What does making it a “soft board” mean? Control of battery charging is handled mostly in software, the SOC Or a physically softer board? If the option listed, why does that lower costs, and does it affect performance?

MacRumors editors can’t read Chinese, so they use Google Translate. As a result, the translation is terrible. They should really hire someone who can translate properly.

Kuo says rigid-flex PCBs are currently used for the battery controller. For iPhone 12, he expects Apple to use flexible PCBs with reduced surface area along with fewer layers. This will help reduce costs by 40-50%. Rigid-flex PCBs are the gold standard for electronics. They are the most expensive type of PCB and they are the most efficient (in terms of packaging and mounting components) and reliability. Flexible PCBs are cheaper to produce as they have a simpler manufacturing process.

Ultimately, this represents a very small cost savings for Apple but every dollar counts given the high cost of 5G components and design.

For people asking, “Why should I care?” You shouldn’t. You’re not Kuo’s audience. Kuo is an analyst working for a brokerage company. He’s wrote this note to let people know which company to invest stocks in (the ones making PCBs).

 

[TechEnthusiast]

Are any consumers actually excited about 5G? Seems like the only people who care are cellular network executives. I love to have the latest tech, but have zero desire for a 5G phone and am really sick of hearing about it. Hopefully this ridiculous race to 5G won’t compromise the rest of the iPhone.

I couldn’t agree more! I am so tired of 5G. I support new technology but I don’t see any immediate benefit from this technology so that I don’t need a 5G device anytime soon. I am sure 5G will be great in 5 tob7 years though.

 

[JPack]

Geez. Apple fans fighting over rumors, meanwhile Tim Cook laughing with his thicc wallet.

To me, 5G doesn’t make sense yet in 2020. 95% of the earth isn’t covered by 5G yet. Apple do 5G because of pressure from other manufacturers. I’m sure Apple want to skip 5G because it doesn’t make sense to put one right now. Maybe next year, but the pressure from media is strong. Imagine a $1k iphone with no 5G and no 120hertz screen while the rest of the industry already have them. Media will eat Apple like crazy with no 5G and no high refresh rate screen as the cons on their reviews.

Steve Jobs on the other hand won’t care about being late to the game. Just like the original iPhone only had 2G while some of the competitors already had 3G.

There are over 85 million 5G subscribers in China alone. That’s a lot of potential customers. Apple is a leading edge tech company. 5G may not be available in your country, but that’s not true everywhere.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

Come on!!! 2 Trillion dollar company and this is what we are getting (cheaper batteries). Apple you can do better, Don’t be Microsoft!! please.

They should take a cut in their profit margin and stop screwing over customers with their pricing.

 

[aleni]

There are over 85 million 5G subscribers in China alone. That’s a lot of potential customers. Apple is a leading edge tech company. 5G may not be available in your country, but that’s not true everywhere.

Then release a 5G version in China just like when they released a dual physical sim version of iPhones for them. I’m sure right now most people might opt for a better battery life this year than a 5G. LTE is no slouch anyway.

 

[JPack]

Then Apple could release a 5G version in China just like when they released a dual physical sim version of iPhones for them. I’m sure right now most people might opt for a better battery life this year than a 5G. LTE is no slouch anyway.

The Qualcomm X55 modem being used this year is a second-gen 5G modem. When iPhone 5 was introduced, Apple used a second-gen Qualcomm LTE modem. You can buy a Xiaomi 5G phone today for less than $250. The point being, 5G components are pretty mature.

The 5G modem can operate in LTE mode so the battery argument isn’t relevant.

 

[fokmik]

Like in other examples...when Apple joins...it pushes hard...so Apple joining hard in 5G, it will be good for us the consumers

 

[ksec]

This whole article is ridiculous.

Kuo says adoption of Sub-6GHz 5G technology will increase Apple's costs by $75–$85, while millimeter wave technology will incur a $125–$135 cost for Apple, so the company is cutting costs on other components wherever it can.

There is absolutely nothing to suggest 5G Sub 6 will need an increase of $75. The whole phone only cost ~$300.

The battery pack, even if it was free given to Apple, will not help a reduction of $75.

Will 5G be more expensive than 4G iPhone? Of course it will be. Even the Qualcomm Modem alone is at least an additional $10, excluding the added cost of 5G Patents and antenna. But all these together are still sub $25.

I am wondering if MR simply mistranslated the Kuo report.

 

[Ramchi]

MacRumors editors can’t read Chinese, so they use Google Translate. As a result, the translation is terrible. They should really hire someone who can translate properly.

Kuo says rigid-flex PCBs are currently used for the battery controller. For iPhone 12, he expects Apple to use flexible PCBs with reduced surface area along with fewer layers. This will help reduce costs by 40-50%. Rigid-flex PCBs are the gold standard for electronics. They are the most expensive type of PCB and they are the most efficient (in terms of packaging and mounting components) and reliability. Flexible PCBs are cheaper to produce as they have a simpler manufacturing process.

Ultimately, this represents a very small cost savings for Apple but every dollar counts given the high cost of 5G components and design.

For people asking, “Why should I care?” You shouldn’t. You’re not Kuo’s audience. Kuo is an analyst working for a brokerage company. He’s wrote this note to let people know which company to invest stocks in (the ones making PCBs).

Headlines correctly reflects the literature in this post. I am happy that I own 11 Pro Max not planning for any 12 series one.

 

[aleni]

The Qualcomm X55 modem being used this year is a second-gen 5G modem. When iPhone 5 was introduced, Apple used a second-gen Qualcomm LTE modem. You can buy a Xiaomi 5G phone today for less than $250. The point being, 5G components are pretty mature.

The 5G modem can operate in LTE mode so the battery argument isn’t relevant.

I’m all for 5G and new tech, but if that article states an additional $200 for a 5G modem only, I think it’s better spent elsewhere for this year.

 

[HacKage]

Much needed, I don't think the first $2T company's profit margins are high enough...

 

[tcphoto1]

All in the name of making a higher profit and giving a little on quality.

 

[Ramchi]

I’m all for 5G and new tech, but if that article states an additional $200 for a 5G modem only, I think it’s better spent elsewhere for this year.

I agree instead of parting $200 for 5G modem large part of that goes to another greedy Qualcomm monopoly company we can live with 4G/LTE for few years. But here 5G mobiles like Oneplus 8 Pro 12 GB RAM 256 GB storage being sold at $850. Hence I am not sure how custom chip manufacturing Apple paying nearly 1/4 of the total street price of a 5G mobile phone into one component!!! That too TC Apple! Something not adding up!

 

[NBAasDOGG]

$49 dollar price increase across all models according to latest rumors.

 

[CausticSoda]

This whole article is ridiculous.

I'll second that to some extent, but some of the frenzied comments are even more ridiculous. It is quite obvious that one particular person posting at the moment is just being deliberately silly to wind people up!

 

[ilikewhey]

The A14 chip is rumoured to be a 5nm chip. That would mean a more power efficient chip hence the smaller battery requirement while maintaining the same level of battery life as the current range.

whatever efficiency 5nm brings, 5g battery draw is gonna rekt that battery life 😂

 

[ilikewhey]

I know about that, I'm engineeer and coder (but that's irrelevant at this point )

My main questions are:

1. Will you be able to use it in the next 1-2 year?
2. Will you actually benefit from using 5g network on your phone?

I'm living in Europe and there are tests in my city, but it's still 1-2 years till we will be able to use it and benefit from it.

and the most important thing - if implementing 5g requires from companies like Apple either any compromises or rise the price - they should postpone 5g.

Many devices like iPhone or android with 5g on the market right now will probably never benefit from 5g.

depend where you live, if china, yes you can use it right now, if in my city which is nyc = hell no 😂

 

[one more]

For as long as this new design benefits the battery life and longevity, I am fine with it. Not so bothered about 5G, considering its possible negative health effects, higher power demands, higher costs and virtually non-existent network coverage in Europe. IMHO, instead of jumping on a 5G hype, the operators worldwide should have continued improving their existing 4G/LTE networks. If we could have a stable 50 Mbps cellular connection everywhere, without any “blind spots”, would we really need more right now? The 4G standard, when properly implemented, can deliver this just fine. I am not a retrograde, but I would be happy to wait for another few years while the cellular networks are being optimised and actually tested in small clusters before being rolled out on a massive scale.

 

[portland_bill]

Steve Jobs' nightmare has turned into reality: the salesmen have taken over the company. Rather than concern themselves with the best experience for their customers we hear stories about cost-savings by removing the charger from the box and now squeezing suppliers, all with a backdrop of ridiculously high-priced phones.

Tim Apple's greatest innovation thus far is the Apple credit card. Bravo!

there are a lot of stockholders here educated with MBA’s who don’t care about Steve’s legacy and will tell you Tim’s Apple is the greatest version of the company by orders of magnitude.

meanwhile, customers are no longer excited by the firm and in fact are increasingly turned off by the zealousness of the marketing and the fanbois.

Be quite clear that more profit != more customers. Huge pressure on supplier margin and raising ASP’s to eyewatering and unprecedented levels anyone can do.

they have even had to open a discount shop on Amazon: some of us remember a time when Apple products had legs d walked themselves off the shelves.

$2T means nothing in this era of zero interest rates and permanent QE.

Hope this latest cost cutting exercise backfires and the phones explode like Samsung’s did. If only to read the response from fanbois. 😂

 

[ericwn]

Come on!!! 2 Trillion dollar company and this is what we are getting (cheaper batteries). Apple you can do better, Don’t be Microsoft!! please.

I’m not getting the relationship between MS and more affordable batteries. This strikes me as a normal process where components are to be as affordable as possible in order to make enough profits.

Let’s reserve judgement about the product for the moment when that product is out in the open and has been tested.

 

[ericwn]

Sounds like cheaper battery to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if people start to change their own battery with an exclusive premium one.
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Honestly no one excited about the 5G anymore. I honestly think it can wait. don’t kill the battery

I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see more private battery swapping attempts due to this battery. Customers generally don’t swap batteries in large numbers and Apple has a paid service for when the warranty has expired. And swapping to a third party battery during warranty is also rather unlikely to happen, as most people don’t want to lose the battery.