The boss of Qualcomm has said that the company is working on bringing 5G to the iPhone as “fast as possible,” according to an interview with President Cristiano Amon for PCMag.
Speaking at the Snapdragon Tech Summit, Amon discussed Apple and Qualcomm’s renewed partnership and added that the ultimate aim was to bring the iPhone 5G to the market as soon as possible.
“Priority number one of this relationship with Apple is how to launch their phone as fast as we can. That’s the priority,” he asked when quizzed on dates.
Amon added that the first 5G iPhone would use Qualcomm modems, but to ensure that the devices are set for a 2020 release, they may not feature all of the company’s RF front end.
Apple is expected to use its own technology to sit alongside Qualcomm’s modems for next year’s iPhone, though the company will also need to use Qualcomm millimeter wave antenna modules if it wants the device to work with 5G networks from Verizon and AT&T.
At present, it’s expected that all of the new iPhones for 2020 will feature 5G technology, but a new rumor has suggested that not all of the new devices will support both mmWave and sub-6GHz, two separate kinds of 5G technology that are currently being rolled out.
Instead, higher-end models may offer both, whilst cheaper will be limited to sub-6GHz.
Speaking of the fallout between Apple and Qualcomm and their subsequent makeup, Amon said: “We re-engaged probably later than both of us would like, and we’ve been working together to try to get as much as possible done, and take as much possible advantage of what they’ve done before so that we can actually launch a phone on schedule with 5G.”
Amon confirmed Qualcomm has secured a multi-year agreement with Apple and that it was “setting no expectations on the front end.”
He added that that company was “very happy” with the progress being made towards 5G on the iPhone, and finished by saying that he expected the two companies would create a “great device” by the time it’s released in 2020.
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