Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE cellular connectivity as its key new feature will be announced alongside iPhone 8 and potentially other new hardware at an Apple media event in September, an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter told CNBC Tuesday morning.
Respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities wrote in a new report to clients today that Apple Watch Series 3 won't have any obvious form factor changes from existing models, saying LTE cellular connectivity will be its main selling point.
Apple is planning to release an LTE-flavored version of its smartwatch later this year, reports Bloomberg. Citing people familiar with the matter, the outlet's Mark Gurman says that the wearable will feature an LTE modem from Intel that will reduce its reliance on the iPhone.
In current Apple Watch models, a connection with a smartphone is required for tasks such as streaming music and sending messages. An LTE chip would obviously allow the Watch to complete these tasks independently, meaning users could opt to leave their phone at home.
Apple is already in talks with carriers in the U.S. and Europe about offering the cellular version, the people added. The carriers supporting the LTE Apple Watch, at least at launch, will be a limited subset of those that carry the iPhone, one of the people said. However, AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. in the U.S. plan to sell the device, according to other people familiar with the matter.
It'll be interesting to see how carriers price their Apple Watch data plans, given the device's tiny display and limited capabilities. You would think it'd be relatively inexpensive. The report also notes that it's possible the LTE-flavored Watch could be delayed beyond this year.
Additionally, Daring Fireball's well-connected John Gruber claims he has heard this year's Apple Watch will also feature an all-new form factor. He doesn't offer up any details, but if true, it would mark the Watch's first change in design since its initial debut two years ago.
Source: Bloomberg
Apple is expected to up its LTE chip orders from Intel as it looks to distance itself from Qualcomm, reports DigiTimes. Despite inferior performance, Intel has gone from supplying around 30% of iPhone 7 baseband chips in 2016 to 50% in 2017. And experts say it could be supplying over 70% of the baseband products for iPhones by 2018.
Earlier this year, Apple filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm in a California district court for charging unfair prices to license its tech. Qualcomm has since countersued Apple, and withheld around $1 billion in royalty rebates from the iPhone-maker as retaliation for its participation in a Korean Fair Trade Commission investigation.
Given the nature of this feud, don't be surprised to see Apple work to dramatically reduce its reliance on Qualcomm over the next several months. The company recently hired Esin Terzioglu, Qualcomm's VP of Engineering, to head up a new chip project. It's believed they are developing their own, in-house baseband modems.
Source: DigiTimes
Windows maker Microsoft's new “Always Connected PCs” initiative focuses on helping computer manufacturers bring to market LTE-enabled notebooks that incorporate eSIM technology (not to be confused with Apple SIM). The company said at the Computex 2017 show this morning in Taipei that it will partner with PC vendors, carriers and chip makers like Intel and Qualcomm on the new initiative.
Created a year ago by Apple, Samsung and other players, these SIMs are embedded directly into a device and cannot be removed. But perhaps more important than that, eSIMs are universally compatible with all carriers and as such allow customers to sign up for a wireless service right on their device.
First LTE-enabled Windows notebooks featuring eSIM technology (via Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 chipset) are on the way from ASUS, HP and Lenovo, said Microsoft. These new Intel x86-based devices will feature Windows 10, always-on LTE connectivity and “great battery life”.
Huawei, VAIO and Xiaomi are committed to Always Connected PCs using eSIM technology, too.
“There is a new generation of users that need to be connected to the cloud at all times. They are students, creators, freelancers, small businesses and enterprises,” said the Redmond firm.
“This means sharing experiences across screens and leveraging the latest network technology like gigabit LTE and eSIM.”
The eSIM standard works virtually anywhere in the world, meaning customers are able to switch carrier instantly, no paperwork or a physical SIM card required whatsoever. Apple owns a patent for an LTE-enabled MacBook with wireless antennas integrated within a hinge mechanism, as depicted on the patent drawing below.
Updated Mac notebooks are expected at WWDC next week, according to Bloomberg.
Ahead of the WWDC keynote, an Apple regulatory filing in Russia has identified five unreleased Mac notebooks, plus a next-generation Magic Keyboard and new iPad Pro models.
It's unclear if these refreshed MacBooks will feature embedded LTE connectivity, but if a next-generation MacBook with an eSIM is lying around somewhere in Jony Ive's basement now would be a good time to bring it to market.
Qualcomm and Apple are currently embroiled in a legal spat involving excessive royalties, casting serious doubt on the possibility of a Qualcomm-made LTE modem in a future iPhone. Today, Qualcomm teased a brand new Snapdragon X20 LTE chip, its second-gen Gigabit LTE modem.
It's capable of fiber-like LTE Category 18 downloads of up to 1.2 gigabits per second, or one-fifth faster than the previous X16 chip. Upload speeds go up to a theoretical maximum of 150 megabits per second. It's expected to ship in the first half of 2018.
Only time will tell if Apple plans on dual-sourcing cellular modems from both Qualcomm and Intel, in which case 2018 iPhones could theoretically support faster-than-Gigabit-LTE downlink speeds of up to 150 megabytes per second.
Apple today published four new ads on its YouTube channel that continue to position its iPad Pro tablet as being better than a computer. The four new commercials, running sixteen seconds each, use the tagline “Real Problems... Answered” and appear to be based on typical PC user tweets.
The videos promote the tablet as a device that's free of wires, immune to viruses, faster than most laptops and able to run Microsoft Office apps and connect to fast LTE cellular networks.
Give the new ads a quick watch, then meet us in comments.
Verizon is no longer the only major US carrier without an unlimited data plan. As announced yesterday, the carrier's newly launched Unlimited plan gives you unlimited 4G data, texts and minutes on a single smartphone or tablet in exchange for $80 per month, or $45 per month for four lines ($180 total).
Those prices entail paper-free billing and AutoPay and exclude taxes. It's unclear if Verizon's access fees of $20 per month per smartphone and $10 per month per tablet apply to the new plan.
Like with other carriers, you don't really get truly unlimited data: consume more than 22 gigabytes of 4G LTE data per line in any given month and the system begins prioritizing usage behind other customers in the event of network congestion. For a limited time only, the big red carrier is offering a free iPhone 7/Plus, Google Pixel or another flagship smartphone to those who'd switch to the new plan.
Apple on Friday announced it's suing iPhone modem supplier Qualcomm, which owns many wireless patents, “after years of disagreement over what constitutes a fair and reasonable royalty”. The suit argues Qualcomm withheld nearly $1 billion in payments it owes to Apple as retaliation because Apple cooperated with the Korea Fair Trade Commission. Last month, Korean regulators slapped Qualcomm with a $850 million fine over its patent-licensing practices.
Apple's suit, filed in federal district court in the Southern District of California, accuses Qualcomm of charging royalties for technologies “they have nothing to do with.” Responding to the complaint, Qualcomm called Apple's claims groundless and said they “misrepresented facts”.
Yesterday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged Qualcomm with monopolizing baseband modems used in smartphones, basically saying the company bribed Apple into not making a WiMAX iPhone in exchange for better royalties. The chip maker in a subsequent press release denied any wrongdoing, saying the FTC doesn't really understand how the mobile industry works.
Now we know why Apple has made the controversial decision to dual-source baseband modem chips for iPhone 7 from both Intel and Qualcomm. Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged Qualcomm with monopolizing baseband modems used in smartphones, saying the firm's leveraged its position to force Apple to use its baseband chips in exchange for lower patent royalties.
Bloomberg today shared research conducted by Twin Prime and Cellular Insights in a story suggestively headlined “Apple's Chip Choices May Leave Some iPhone Users in Slow Lane” which asserts Apple may have throttled LTE performance of the Verizon iPhone 7 handsets to make them perform about as well as the AT&T iPhone 7 models.
Apple in a statement shot down the report and denied throttling, insisting there's “no discernible difference” in wireless performance between various iPhone 7 models.