According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Apple is now working on including support for 6G connectivity into their upcoming products. It has been stated that the Cupertino corporation has encountered difficulties over the course of the previous several years as it endeavours to develop its very own 5G modem and lessen its reliance on producers of chips such as Qualcomm.
According to the most recent issue of his weekly Power On email, the iPhone manufacturer is concentrating on the development of 6G technology and is also recruiting staff members to work on the standard for the next generation of cellular networks.
Gurman came across a job advertisement that was published on the companies website. The job advertisement was for a modem systems software architect who would be joining the Wireless Technologies and Ecosystems (WTE) team of the company.
As part of their responsibilities, the prospective cellular platform architects at Apple will be entrusted with overseeing the development of 6G reference architecture in addition to making prototype implementations.
Taking into consideration the wording of the job posting, it would indicate that Apple is interested in evaluating the incorporation of 6G technology into their future devices. The engineers who are hired for this position will be required to work in conjunction with the research and development departments of the company as well as external partners.
It is important to note that the 5G standard was not introduced until July of 2017, but the same month that carriers started rolling out networks with the current-generation network standard was 2019.
Although the new standard, known as 6G, is anticipated to be finalized over the course of the next couple of years, consumers should not anticipate seeing devices that are capable of 6G support until the end of the decade.
According to a study that was published a month ago, Apple will not be able to meet its goal of developing a 5G modem for its devices by the year 2025. In accordance with the research, the manufacturer of smartphones is anticipated to introduce its very own modem on a future iPhone model by the year 2026. Because Apple and Qualcomm renewed their contract, Apple will continue to have access to the modem technology that Qualcomm has developed until the year 2026.
As stated in the article that details Apple’s difficulties in adopting sophisticated millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology, it is possible that Apple’s rumored 5G modem would not provide superior performance compared to other devices and the company’s own handsets that are equipped with chips manufactured by Qualcomm.
According to reports, the Apple also confronts the additional problem of guaranteeing that its chip technology does not infringe on Qualcomm’s patents with regard to intellectual property.