Coming iPhones' Challenges May Include 5G Chip Shortfall
Analysts and others predicted challenges for the next round of iPhones expected to be announced at Apple’s annual special event Tuesday in Cupertino, California. Samsung, LG and Moto jumped into the nascent 5G market early, but Apple has been widely…
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reported to be waiting until 2020 for its first 5G phone. That could give current iPhone owners little incentive to upgrade to 2019 models, analysts and others said. Digital Trends expects a lack of a 5G iPhone this fall due to 5G chip availability and 5G’s early growing pains (see 1909090002). Apple didn’t comment. Citing its own tests of 5G service, Digital Trends assessed the next-generation mobile infrastructure as “still very much in its infancy.” It "struggled to find 5G service that doesn’t drop out from one city block to another.” In 4G, Apple iPhone users experienced higher upload speeds -- useful for sharing photos and videos -- than on download speeds compared with Android users May 27-Aug. 5, reported Opensignal Monday. Noting the three-year U.S. smartphone replacement cycle, analyst Ian Fogg said users with 2015-16 iPhones experienced much slower download speeds than users with recent models: iPhone 7 and 6s users experienced 4G download speeds of 16.7-18.3 Mbps vs. more than 25 Mbps for the iPhone Xs and Xs Max. OnePlus, LG and Samsung smartphone users experienced the fastest U.S. download speeds, said Opensignal. OnePlus 7 Pro, LG V35, LG G8, Samsung S10 and S10 Plus models tied for first place averaging above 36 Mbps. Across the top 50 smartphone models ranked by the speed, 36 percent were Samsung models, 20 percent from LG and 15 percent Google. Two iPhones -- XS and XS Max -- made the list.