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Three of Apple’s 2020 iPhones will reportedly support 5G

Three of Apple’s 2020 iPhones will reportedly support 5G

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Apple had previously been rumored to have 2 5G phones in the pipeline

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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

As networks begin to roll out 5G networks around the world, phone manufacturers are beginning to roll out phones that will be able to access them. Apple has been widely expected to roll out a 5G-compatible phone in 2020, and now, a new report suggests that all three of the company’s phones will support 5G.

Last month, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that next year’s 5.4-inch and 6.7-inch iPhone models would support 5G, while a third, a cheaper 6.1-inch iPhone XR successor would only access LTE networks. Kuo has now issued a new report, and MacRumors says that he’s revised that prediction: All three iPhone models will support 5G. He notes that “Apple has more resource for developing the 5G iPhone after the acquisition of Intel baseband business,” and that the price of Android 5G phones will drop.

However, while the report comes just days after Apple announced that it was acquiring a “majority” of Intel’s modem business for $1 billion, MacRumors says that the company isn’t quite ready to switch away from Qualcomm, and that it won’t likely be until 2021 before it can use its own version.

Kuo notes that he expects most Android phones will support the sub-6GHz version of 5G, but not the mmWave version, which offers more speed. “The key is that consumers will think that 5G is the necessary function in 2H20,” he writes. “Therefore, iPhone models which will be sold at higher prices have to support 5G for winning more subsidies from mobile operators and consumers’ purchase intention.” Essentially, Apple is betting that its customers will want to have the ability to take advantage of the wide range of 5G networks, and that they’ll pay a bit more for it.