2019 has been nothing but a bringer of bad news for Apple, but it seems like the company’s woes are far from over.
While the rest of its Android competitors are gearing up for the release of 5G-enabled devices starting this year, Apple’s 5G iPhone models may reportedly be delayed until 2020, due to a delay in the availability of Intel 5G chips.
Intel announced this week that its 5G-enabled chips will not be available to smartphones until at least 2020. This can be a huge problem to Apple, which makes use of Intel chips to power up its cellphones. Sandra Rivera, an executive for Intel, stated at a recent media event in Palo Alto, California that the chip manufacturer is not expecting any “consumer products” in the market until next year. It was not made clear, however, whether this means that the chips will not be made available until 2020, or if the chips will simply not yet be released to manufacturers before this time.
Apple had originally planned to release 5G-enabled iPhones in 2020, but now that may no longer be possible with the delayed Intel 5G chips. One possible solution is for Apple to source out 5G chips from Mediatek or Samsung, but according to reports, no agreement has come out of this discussion yet.
