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  • shabby - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    Samsung and Apple aren't on the list? Rip qualcomm...
  • leo_sk - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    They are most likely developing their own chips (or apple may go with intel modems). Other oems who use flagship snapdragon will most likely have x50
  • SamitBasu - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    Indeed Apple is going with Intel solution. Samsung is going with the inhouse solution, which is actually a year ahead of the X50 in product development schedule.
  • BurntMyBacon - Friday, February 9, 2018 - link

    @SamitBasu: "Samsung is going with the inhouse solution, which is actually a year ahead of the X50 in product development schedule."

    I haven't really been keeping up with modem development, but a quick search leaves me wondering where this statement is coming from. I'm finding articles that suggest Samsung is having some difficulties with mm wavelength radios due to their inexperience. If Samsung is a year ahead of them, then that means they've had the ability to run a tech demo roughly equal to Qualcomm's for over a year now. Also, Qualcomm and Intel plan to have modems available in 2019. Given the talk of phones with 5G in 2019, it won't be at the end of the year as they'll need to be available in time for manufacturers to integrate them. If Samsung is a year ahead, shouldn't we be expecting Samsung's modem to be available relatively soon. Haven't heard any announcements yet, so I have to ask what your source is for this information.
  • SamitBasu - Friday, February 9, 2018 - link

    "but a quick search leaves me wondering where this statement is coming from."

    1. Verizon CEO was making the first intercontinental 5G calls using Samsung's 5G mini-tablet on mmwave 5G connection during the Super Bowl 2018. https://venturebeat.com/2018/02/05/verizon-quietly...

    2. Qualcomm was showing off its X50 which looked more like a lab experiment than anything that resembles a commercial grade product a few days later. #Facepalm.

    3. Right now, Samsung and Intel 5G solutions are being field tested at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics where there is a mmwave 5G network up and running. Qualcomm is a no show, probably because they have nothing to field test at the moment.

    "I'm finding articles that suggest Samsung is having some difficulties with mm wavelength radios due to their inexperience."

    It's a wrong article, obviously. Any wireless carrier field testing mmwave 5G are using Samsung basestation and home routers exclusvely, even the ones that never used Samsung equipment before like Aquivar and Orange. Why? Because Samsung is the king of mmwave 5G and no other vendor is able to supply what Samsung has been delivering since 2q2017. Heck, Verizon is building its very first commercial mmwave 5G network in Sacramento using Samsung 5G basestations at this very moment. https://news.samsung.com/global/verizon-selects-sa...

    "Also, Qualcomm and Intel plan to have modems available in 2019."

    Well, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G Edition is scheduled to enter production by November this year in order to be ready for March 2019 mmwave 5G commercial launch. This means Samsung's 5G modem enters production by fall. Samsung really is one year ahead of Qualcomm in mmwave 5G.

    "If Samsung is a year ahead, shouldn't we be expecting Samsung's modem to be available relatively soon."

    Yes, full production by fall for the commercial grade chips. Basestation 5G modem chips are already in production.

    Haven't heard any announcements yet

    Samsung doesn't make flash announcements; Samsung just puts a fully functional 5G mini-tablet in the hand of Verizon's CEO and let him have fun with 4 Gbits/s speed during the Super Bowl.
  • sing_electric - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    You know customers can chose not to show up on that list, right? Although Samsung and Apple both develop their own SoCs, so far, they've both used Qualcomm modems in at least a fair % of their phones (I think Apple also splits with Intel, but doesn't (yet?) make their own modems.

    My bet is that Samsung will use Qualcomm's modems in at least some of its phones (or in some regions) in 2019, just like everyone else.

    Apple, on the other hand, has never really cared about being on the "bleeding edge" of network tech - remember, they released the OG iPhone with a **2G** modem in it, at a time when 3G phones had been around for years, and they didn't add LTE until the iPhone 5 in last 2012, well over a year after most high-end Android handsets added LTE.
  • SamitBasu - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    sing_electric

    "My bet is that Samsung will use Qualcomm's modems in at least some of its phones"

    Samsung has no obligation to use Qualcomm's AP once Qualcomm moves its foundry work from Samsung to TSMC. This is why Samsung is dropping Snapdragon in 5G Galaxys.
  • Mr Perfect - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    Qualcomm doesn't own any patents on 5G technology, do they? IIRC, they hold some patents relating to the 4G standard and get royalties from anyone who makes a 4G modem. If they pulled that crap again, they'll make money whether a phone has a Qualcomm modem in it or not.
  • sherifhanna - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    Hi - this is Sherif from Qualcomm. Actually 5G NR is in fact built on several key Qualcomm inventions that have been accepted into the standard: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2017/12/18/five-...
  • SamitBasu - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    They do, but not as much as Samsung. Samsung is the new Qualcomm of 5G era. Notice how the very first operational 5G silicon is the Exynos 5G, not the X50.
  • Pork@III - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    5G will be good but 6G will be final extinction.
  • ch3mn3y - Friday, February 9, 2018 - link

    I'm waiting for 10G! It will be... WOW! I'm missing words how mega it will be! :P
  • SydneyBlue120d - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    Do You think rumors of a Snapdragon 850 with integrated 5G/4G/3G/2G modem can be real?
  • Pork@III - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    If 850 exist :D if no exist then 855
  • Dragonstongue - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    "Coupled with the array of antennas needed to efficiently work with millimeter wave frequencies, and it definiately puts some pressure on the limited internal volume of phones"
    (by the way definitely is spelled wrong ^.^

    There is not limited space, rather the makers of these things continuously prioritize making thinner and thinner which tends to increase the fragility factor (coupled with more and more glass) removing things like headphone input (not inside the or as a dual function of charging port) etc.

    Many years ago there was a consortium to address the many different types of chargers and to standardize on plug type deal (all except apple who does what they want just because) they really need to standardize an "acceptable dimensions" list as well..such as X thickness or more among other things.
  • agoyal - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    As long as the modem is power efficient and has the right LTE bands, I don’t care about the speed. Most of the time speed beyond 40-50 Mbs don’t mean much to me as I am not downloading big files on phone. I can see why Apple doesn’t care about bleeding edge modems
  • SamitBasu - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    To guarantee you that 50 mbits/s download speed, the basestation must be able to sustain 10 gbits/s or faster because that cell connection is shared with all the users in the cell. So if there are 200 people using 5G, then each get 50 mbits/s
  • trivik12 - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    I dont see qualcomm having a great future while fighting with Apple. With Qualcomm out of next gen iphones only thing pending is galaxy series to move away from qualcomm. if and when that happens, qualcomm will become a fringe player.
  • ch3mn3y - Friday, February 9, 2018 - link

    Samsung is not on the list, but is working with Qualcomm: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2018/01/31/...
  • SamitBasu - Friday, February 9, 2018 - link

    ch3mn3y

    Yes, that's because Samsung is the mmwave 5G basestation vendor of Verizon, NTT Docomo, Orange, Arqiva, and KT.

    Qualcomm needs to verify that X50 interfaces with Samsung's 5G basestations.
  • Ananke - Friday, February 9, 2018 - link

    The big business to grab is not just phones. In US it is the access to the last mile Internet delivery, which is more than $100 bln annual market - data, TV, video streaming etc. Verizon wants the money that Comcast, Time Warner and ATT make.
  • Kidster3001 - Friday, February 9, 2018 - link

    That's what I'm looking forward to! Phones already have enough speed/bandwidth for me. To have no more reliance on the cable running to my house, just have everything beamed in on 5G, would be very nice. Should make it much easier to change providers. They can fight for my $$ like the mobile carriers do. Only a couple years away!

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