iPhone 12 has announced and is almost certain to implement a new function that many Apple fans have been waiting for for a very long time, but unfortunately it seems that it will be castrated. An announcement made today by analysts who would have discussed with Apple partners regarding their plans vis-à-vis the iPhone 12, tells us that support for 5G networks will be limited in the new phone models to only a certain type of networks.
iPhone 12 would only have support for 5G networks that operate on frequencies lower than 6 GHz, while support for mmWave networks will only be implemented sometime in 2021. This means that iPhone 12 will only offer support for those networks 5G that does not offer the speeds of over 1 Gbps that everyone dreams of, and of course this is a big disappointment for many Apple fans.
iPhone 12 will have limited support for 5G networks
The problem, of course, is not with the iPhone 12, but with mobile phone operators who implement 5G differently, but also with modem manufacturers, who do not offer support for both types of networks as they should. This reminds me of the years when 4G phones were divided between standard and CDMA, and almost the same will happen now, except that Apple will implement only one standard in the iPhone 12 now, and both only in 2021.
“Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will have two 5G smartphone launches, with the sub-6GHz models set to launch in September 2020, while the mmWave launch has been delayed until December/January. The launch delay, according to our checks, stems from Apple's decision to use its own Antenna-in-Package (AiP) components, instead of buying them from a third party.”
It is possible that all iPhone 12 models will have mmWave support implemented in 2021, but for now Apple's strategy is not known, and the rumors do not offer much clarity. However, it is possible that the iPhone 12 will not offer us the possibility to surf the Internet at the speeds of over 1 Gbps that we dreamed of, but only at substantially lower ones, comparable to the current 4G ones, so the differences will not be so great big as we want.
The iPhone 12 will only be released in the fall of this year, so until then we will definitely find out what the final plans of the Apple company are, and we can only hope that everything that is rumored now is not true.
