Apple May Only Ship mmWave 5G Compatible iPhones to Certain Regions

By Sarmad BurkiMarch 26, 2023

1 minute read

There is a lot of controversy and hype around the upcoming iPhone 12 series

The iPhone 12 saga continues. Always with a new chapter, it seems as if the iPhone 12 may just be one of the most controversial phones to come out in a long time. The timing couldn’t be any worse either. The COVID-19 spread has wreaked havoc all across the globe and industry was hindered as well. The iPhone 12 manufacturing has been under pressure for quite some time now. While we have seen some promising reports, its like one step forward and two steps back for the company.

Supply-chain backs reports that not all of this year's iPhones get mmWave 5G https://t.co/2fgilOCp8x by @benlovejoy
— 9to5Mac (@9to5mac) June 30, 2020

iPhone 12 & 5G

According to this latest piece featured at 9to5Mac, the company may be facing yet another delay. According to the article, the iPhone was reported to support 5G. This is the new trend for the upcoming technology. Now, there are two kinds of 5G connections: sub-6GHz 5G and mmWave 5G. The former, although slower, offer a wider range, similar to LTE. mmWave, on the other hand, offers speeds closer to 1 gigabit. But this comes at a tradeoff as the range is quite shorter.

The reports previously said that Apple would have support for both kinds. Now though, from a piece from DigiTimes, it is rumoured that the company would not be able to manufacture enough devices by launch. This means that there would be limited (by 50%) devices to support both. Now, this could mean certain things. For markets such as the EU, UK, Canada and the US, they would ship these devices. For others, there is a chance that they’d see a limited option iPhone with only sub-6GHz 5G compatibility.

While this does not bode well for the company, in practical terms, it doesn’t really sound that bad. 5G is a technology which has still not normalised in the US. In the rest of the world, it may take a couple of years more. As for the mmWave perspective. Unless you have the modem in viewing range, you will not be getting any faster downloads. It does make it feel a tad redundant.