Three Reason Why Apple’s Next Gen iPhone 5 won’t have 4G LTE Support

Submitted by lalit on July 11, 2011 - 7:48am.

Digitimes today reported that Apple’s next generation iPhone might have 4G LTE support, which might resemble 4G LTE setup found on HTC ThunderBolt. Joseph Tsai of Digitimes further speculates that if Apple doesn’t go with HTC like LTE chipset (MSM8655) they might opt for newer Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset that combines both LTE and HSPA support on a single chip.

Even if we consider that Apple will leave their superb A5 chip for Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 chip (MSM8960 is not a simple wireless chip, it’s a complete processor package), Qualcomm won’t ship this new chip till end Q4 2011. They have just started sampling the new chip and it will take another 4-6 months to start mass production. This would make it almost impossible for Apple to use MSM8960 chip in next gen iPhone that will ship by September. Also, there are three very good reasons why Apple will wait for next generation LTE chipsets, which Qualcomm will start sampling by end of 2011 with volume production aimed for 2012. The three reasons are:

  • Size and Power efficiency: Both the current Qualcomm Snapdragon processors MSM8655 and MSM8960 are using first generation LTE chips that Qualcomm introduced in late 2009. These chips are made using 45nm process and are very power hungry when it comes to LTE network. However, Qualcomm has already announced second generation LTE chips that will be based on 28nm process technology resulting in size reduction by as much as 50% and power efficiency improvement by at least 67%. Qualcomm says that the combined package of mobile modem, radio frequency IC and power management IC made on 28nm process will be ¼ the size of current LTE solution.
  • Design Compromises: Apple’s COO, Peter Oppenheimer said at April 2011 earnings call “The first generation of LTE chipsets forced a lot of design compromises with the handset, and some of those we are just not willing to make.” Apple is known for their design acumen. LTE chipset currently available will not only force Apple to increase thickness, but also make other design sacrifices to accommodate larger battery needed for power hungry LTE chip. For example, HTC ThunderBolt is 0.56-inch thick, whereas iPhone 4 is just 0.37-inch thick, and yet many reviewers rate ThunderBolt’s battery life as very poor when compared to the iPhone.
  • Cost: Adding LTE chipset to iPhone could increase the production cost by as much as 25%. For half of that cost Apple could add more RAM, bigger storage and faster dual-core processor resulting in improved user experience. Also first generation LTE chips will become outdated within 8-10 months when new 28nm LTE chips come to market and spending that much on an out going technology is not Apple’s way.

We think Apple will bring LTE iPhone to the market when second generation LTE chips based on 28nm process will start shipping in 2012. We also believe that Apple will bring LTE support to iPads first like they have done with A4 and A5 processor.