Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m an Apple fangirl. The phones & devices are beautiful and the MacOS is just completely intuitive to me. And yes, I had 2 phones when I worked at Google: my personal iPhone + my work Android phone. And yes, I took heat for having both (but I wasn’t alone - many colleagues did too!) So I am always on the lookout for Apple device announcements.
#techtopic
Last week Apple debuted its newest line of iPhone 12 in 4 flavors (mini, regular, pro, pro max). Lots of great improvements in the camera, the processor, the display and color choices -- but the big news was that it’s 5G-capable. Verizon was also on stage to announce their new 5G low-band network (though T-Mobile had already launched their version in Dec 2019 and A&T’s version came out in Jul 2020). And Samsung had already launched 5G capable phones 18 months ago.
So why is Apple’s launch important? Apple tends to wait to launch a technology until it thinks the market is ready for it. Their iPhone 12 launch may signal to the major carriers that it’s time to improve the patchy 5G coverage as the 5G usage may start to take off with both major smartphone makers now in the game. This launch may also signal that
But what is 5G and why should you care? If we ever want self-driving cars to be a reality, we need 5G networks or faster to ensure that the lightning-fast decisions are made & communicated back to vehicles. 5G can also help support the vast network of connected devices, the streaming services for music/video/gaming and other areas like telehealth. Wired has a really great 5G primer that outlines what 5G is and why its growth is critical to the growth of tech in the US. 5G promises to ultimately allow 10gigabit per second downloads (which is 600 times as fast as 4G services) -- but we are a loooong way from that level of performance and coverage across most of the US. Only certain city blocks in certain cities have that speed -- and it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the carriers to truly expand coverage.
