New iPhone to catapult Apple to head of 5G smartphone market in 2020, analyst says

Apple is expected to take a seat at the head of the 5G smartphone table in 2020 upon the introduction of an iPhone capable of taking advantage of the speedy network technology, according to new research from Strategy Analytics.

The research firm forecasts Apple to take a "dominant" position in the 5G sub-sector despite a relatively late entry, currently projected to land within the company's typical fall iPhone release window in 2020.

"It may seem counterintuitive that Apple, which currently has no 5G phones in its portfolio will be able to pass current 5G market leaders Samsung and Huawei," said Ken Hyers, director at Strategy Analytics. "But with three new 5G models coming next year, Apple merely needs to match its current upgrade rates for newly introduced iPhone models to take the lead next year."

With a healthy market share and increasing churn rate, the iPhone can easily take the 5G crown in one fell swoop. Other manufacturers, some of which already field 5G handsets, need to build a market presence device-by-device.

Strategy Analytics Associate Director Ville-Petteri Ukonaho adds that Apple has an opportunity to cast a wide net with the iPhone, especially in important markets like China and the U.S. Both regions are at the forefront of 5G development, with carriers already seeding their respective networks with compatible equipment.

"But with the two largest 5G markets in 2020, China and the USA, dominated by Huawei and Apple respectively, these two vendors are set to lead in 5G next year," Ukonaho said.

In the U.S., for example, Verizon is slowly adding 5G Ultra Wideband services to densely populated metropolitan areas, while the pending T-Mobile and Sprint merger is in part contingent on the proliferation of the technology.

Apple is widely rumored to integrate a 5G baseband chip in a next-generation iPhone slated for release in 2020. Industry insiders believe Qualcomm to supply 5G modems in the near term, with Apple potentially introducing in-house 5G hardware as early as 2022.

While Apple is anticipated to lead the 5G field in 2020, competitors will quickly catch up and overtake the iPhone maker as the technology becomes a standard feature.

"Despite the strong showing that is expected for Apple in 5G in 2020, in the longer-term Samsung will regain the 5G crown," Hyers said. "As more markets cut over to 5G, Samsung will capture the majority of that share by its dominance of the overall smartphone market and a broader portfolio of 5G devices across more price-bands."

Xiaomi confirms the launch of 5G smartphone in 2020

A couple of months back, it was rumored that Xiaomi would launch its Redmi K30 smartphone with 5G connectivity in December this year. Xiaomi General Manager Lu Weibing recently confirmed via the Chinese social media platform, Weibo that the 5G Redmi smartphone will be released in 2020. The Weibo post by Lu Weibing which, roughly translated from Chinese reads, "At the "China Mobile 2019 Global Partner Conference" being held, China Mobile announced the evaluation of 4G hotspot mobile phone, Redmi's K20Pro, Note8Pro, Note8 all on the list!." '; var randomNumber = Math.random(); var India = (window.geoinfo && window.geoinfo.CountryCode === 'IN') && (window.location.href.indexOf('outside India') === -1 ); console.log(isIndia && randomNumber He further adds, "In the era of 5G, Redmi continued to adhere to high quality, overcome a series of technical difficulties in the early 5G, and bring the best quality 5G terminal to rice noodles. In 2020, Redmi is a 5G pioneer. See you at K30!".

Clearly, the post does not clarify that when precisely in 2020, the Redmi K30 5G smartphone will arrive. But it is now sure that it is not coming by the end of this year. Also, this is the first time when Xiaomi has confirmed anything about its 5G smartphones.

The Weibo post also contains a small chart that shows which basically shows China Mobile's 4Ghotspot test results were a few Redmi smartphones seem to offer the fastest speed compared to the other smartphones in China.

Xiaomi Redmi K30 smartphone rumor roundup As for as the launch of the smartphone goes, it has already been confirmed that it will be launched in 2020 and will come with a 5G network chip onboard. Another leak that has appeared lately is that the phone is expected to come with a pill-shaped dual punch hole camera just like Galaxy S10+ Apart from this, the upcoming Redmi 5G smartphone is expected to be relatively more affordable compared to other smartphones in the market. However, there's a lot to be confirmed right now about the phone such as processors, camera sensors and more. As the rumor mill is moving fast, we can expect more details to appear soon.

Samsung’s new outsourcing strategy could result in cheaper smartphones

Samsung will reportedly outsource a fifth of its smartphone production operations to Chinese contractors in 2020. The alleged planned move would lower costs and help the South Korean company compete with Chinese rivals that keep undercutting it, such as Huawei and Xiaomi. 

Anonymous sources who are “familiar with the move,” told Reuters that Samsung plans to ship an estimated 60 million phones made in China by “original design manufacturers” (ODMs) in 2020, out of an overall total of around 300 million.

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The source, rather damningly, described the plans as “an inevitable strategy rather than a good strategy”. 

At the time of publication, the suspected partner company is Wingtech, which Samsung has already worked with − on the mid-range Samsung Galaxy A6S.

The Galaxy A6S’ status as an ODM-made phone essentially means it’s surprisingly affordable, despite having decent specs. The A6S has 6GB of RAM, dual rear cameras and a Snapdragon 660 SoC, and at launch the 64GB model was available for just ¥1799 (~£200), with the 128GB version priced at ¥2199 (~£245).

Outsourcing phone manufacturing in this way isn’t uncommon in the industry and can help bring prices down for consumers. Alongside other ODMs, Wingtech already makes phones for Oppo, Huawei, and Xiaomi.

However, because Samsung will have less influence over quality control, could this result in worse products being created?

Samsung can ill-afford a quality crisis in such a competitive industry. It’s already pushed its luck with the disastrous Galaxy Note 7 and Samsung Galaxy Fold.

If all goes well, the only noticeable change for the consumer may just be one or two more affordable Samsung handsets. What’s not to like? There is, of course, a chance that one or two of them have small bugs or issues as Samsung transfer more phone manufacturing to ODMs, but we’ll have to wait for consumer feedback as the shift takes place.

Staff Writer

George recently joined the Trusted Reviews team after graduating with an MA in Magazine Journalism from The University of Sheffield. He was previously Tech Editor for The National Student and won 'BBC…

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