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Why isn't 4G/5G in any Mac with Apple Silicon?

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Jan 1, 2015
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You'd think it be a good fit and it would incentive carriers to carry Macs on amortization of 24, 36 or even 48 months long.

Many people get their iPhones on installment and this would help many to get Macs on the cheap.

iPads & Watches have 4G/5G. Why not Macs too!
 
Apple is in the process of designing their own cellular modems after buying the business and patents from Intel last year. They currently buy them from Qualcomm and Qualcomm has an unusually licensing model. They charge a fixed percentage of the sale prices of devices containing their modems. That means that a Macbook with a price of $1500 to $4000 might cost a lot more to cover the Qualcomm license .

To support cellular, they are going to have to do some adjustments to how Mac OS treats data connections. You can have it downloading large updates in the background and killing your data plan in the first hour. Low power mode may be a first step in this direction.
 
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MBs connect with iPhones hotspot so flawless though. You don't even have to turn it on from the iPhone. So I doubt Apple has any type of focus putting in a 4G/5G modem.
 
Probably because there's a lack of demand.

Apple isn't afraid to charge $400 for 1TB of storage, so they wouldn't have problems charging $600 for a modem. Lenovo charges $500 for a 5G modem for example.

There aren't many executives who are using MacBook and are willing to pay for 4G/5G.
 
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Additional power consumption; increased form factor to accommodate chips and antennae; more complex software to handle the communication protocols; ad nauseam

Why as LIVEFRMNYC stated above...but our model at an extra 1k instead of an extra 200ish. Cost benefit analysis indicates the external model device makes them more money.
 
Boil said:
^^^ This...

Apple wants you to buy their external modem, aka iPhone...
Click to expand...

Apple could charge an iPhone price and people wouldn't blink.

iPhone 12 mini = $599. Lenovo already charges $500 for a 5G modem.

It's obvious Apple would make more money selling a MacBook 5G than selling an iPhone 12 mini.
 
CarbonCycles said:
Additional power consumption; increased form factor to accommodate chips and antennae; more complex software to handle the communication protocols; ad nauseam

Why as LIVEFRMNYC stated above...but our model at an extra 1k instead of an extra 200ish. Cost benefit analysis indicates the external model device makes them more money.
Click to expand...

Nah, none of that makes sense given iPad has a modem.
 
JPack said:
Apple could charge an iPhone price and people wouldn't blink.

iPhone 12 mini = $599. Lenovo already charges $500 for a 5G modem.

It's obvious Apple would make more money selling a MacBook 5G than selling an iPhone 12 mini.
Click to expand...

I would figure most folks who buy a laptop run it for at least three years, if not longer; but a lot of folks get a new iPhone more frequently than that, so one modem sale versus two or more iPhone sales over the life of the laptop?

Apple would make more money selling a laptop & numerous iPhones than they would over a laptop with a 5G modem!
 
I might have paid extra for a 5G modem w/ eSim in my MBP, that said... I'm perfectly fine with tethering off my phone as I always have it with me anyway.
 
Boil said:
I would figure most folks who buy a laptop run it for at least three years, if not longer; but a lot of folks get a new iPhone more frequently than that, so one modem sale versus two or more iPhone sales over the life of the laptop?

Apple would make more money selling a laptop & numerous iPhones than they would over a laptop with a 5G modem!
Click to expand...

Does anyone think, "I've got a modem in my iPad Pro (or MacBook Pro), I don't need to upgrade my iPhone soon"? You can't really use one in place of the other.

Also, the iPhone tends to draw in MacBook buyers, not the other way around. iPhone sells an order of magnitude more than MacBook.
 
JPack said:
So? Does that mean Apple’s software team can’t add the modem stack to macOS?
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No, but we all know Apple is very anal about the user experience. I think it will happen one day, but not until the modem is integrated into their M chip.
 
Gnattu said:
But they will sell more iPhone 12 mini, and that is the problem.
Click to expand...

There's so few people buying the mini that Apple is discontinuing it. No one is buying a MacBook Pro and thinking, "Well, I don't need to upgrade my iPhone for the next few years."
 
Tagbert said:
Apple is in the process of designing their own cellular modems after buying the business and patents from Intel last year. They currently buy them from Qualcomm and Qualcomm has an unusually licensing model. They charge a fixed percentage of the sale prices of devices containing their modems. That means that a Macbook with a price of $1500 to $4000 might cost a lot more to cover the Qualcomm license .

To support cellular, they are going to have to do some adjustments to how Mac OS treats data connections. You can have it downloading large updates in the background and killing your data plan in the first hour. Low power mode may be a first step in this direction.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Never knew about Qualcomm taking a fixed percentage of the device's sales price. That's a lot of money.

No wonder Apple is so desperate to make its own modems.

I bet we will see a 5G option once Apple can make its own.

Also, it seems like the 5G modem isn't integrated into the SoC itself is because it's a separate Qualcomm chip. Once Apple makes it own, we can see 5G integrated into every iPhone, iPad, and Mac SoC. I doubt Apple will make two different SoCs, one with and one without 5G transistors. Apple could just disable/enable the 5G modem in the SoC depending on the configuration users choose.
 
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JPack said:
There's so few people buying the mini that Apple is discontinuing it. No one is buying a MacBook Pro and thinking, "Well, I don't need to upgrade my iPhone for the next few years."
Click to expand...
Apple sells more iPhone minis than MacBook Pros. Apple sells more iPhone minis than Macs full stop.
 
That is a really good question? Maybe saving for another release? Maybe not enough demand in power users/Pros?
 
A cellular laptop is rare thing even in PC market. Only small portion of models have an option to go, and I believe there's reason for that: small target segment. Mac users are already small portion of market segment, and I don't think there is enough potential buyers willing to spend extra to go cellular to justify cost in providing such an option.


Any place where you can 'setup' a laptop almost always have wifi.
 
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