As OEMs continue to march towards Qualcomm to launch their 5G ready devices, Intel is gearing up to quickstart its own 5G modem chip development.
The company has now reportedly begun working on engineering projects to begin the mass production of their 5G modem chips in the second quarter of 2019. The report comes in via Taiwanese industrial news publication, Digitimes. This news comes after Intel revealed their components for its upcoming 5G chips at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC).
Intel is gearing up compete with Qualcomm and MediaTek to supply Apple with the new generation mobile network chips in their upcoming iPhone models. The chipmaker is still expected to continue providing modem chips for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 for the time being as the demand for the older phones continues to remain strong.
Even if volume production begins in 2019, the upcoming models of Apple’s flagship device, the iPhone might not implement the 5G technology. Historically, Apple generally doesn’t implement newer features and technologies until they become better, more proven and cheaper. However with final testing of these chips still pending and the complexity of the chip design, Intel will be unlikely to begin production of their 5G chips in large volumes until 2020.
