Intel says its 5G modem chips will not appear in phones until 2020

Intel announced this week that sample 5G modem chips would be shipping to customers this year but the company doesn’t expect consumer “products in the market” until next year.

Executives from the company revealed that they do not expect Intel’s 5G modem chips to appear in mobile phones until 2020.

This could mean that Apple may end up being over a year behind compared to competitors in delivering a device that uses the faster networks.

At an event in Palo Alto, Sandra Rivera, who oversees Intel’s networking chip business, said that 5G modem chips will ship to customers this year but consumer chips

It’s been reported that executives at Apple have been in discussions with Samsung and MediaTek over 5G modem chips for its iPhones to be released this year, but the outcome of those discussions has not been known yet.

“Our model relative to other California-based players is just completely different,” said Intel Chief Executive Bob Swan. “Ours is not a licensing based model.

“Royalty streams that are charged against the cost of the entire device, that’s a model that as you know has caused quite a bit of friction in the market,” Swan added.

Qualcomm has had legal battles with Apple and other phone makers over its patent practices. “Friction for others is opportunity for us,” said Swan.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and have not been compensated for this article.