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

[thenewperson]

Probably waiting for their own modems to be done

 

[etn]

Who would want to pay for yet another cellular bill for another device?

Some voice/data plans allow for an extra SIM card at no or little extra cost.

I, for one, would actively use a 5G modem in a Mac laptop.

 

[TrueBlou]

Well, one aspect could be that they do not want to pay Qualcomm a licence fee for every MacBook sold. Perhaps once Apple has finalised their own modem it will make an appearance.

But on the flip side of that, do we really need a modem built-in?
The vast majority of places we go to these days will have free WiFi for us to use, so there’s no need there.

For when we’re out with WiFi areas, well, who owns a MacBook and not a smartphone they can use as a hotspot? I’d wager that number is minuscule. So why pay for yet another cellular contract, when we have a perfectly good one already in our pocket?

Personally, and it is just personally, I wouldn’t dare speak for an entire market. But I have unlimited data with the contract I use with my iPhone. For years I’ve used that as a modem/hotspot when we go on holiday and there’s no WiFi, along with a Kingston MobileLite travel router, to share that data with my family.

Even when we’re in the middle of nowhere - when my wife drags me kicking and screaming away from civilisation, to stay at our caravan, there’s still fast 4G (and eventually 5G). Even with more than one of us streaming video, it’s never an issue.

So, there’s a market for it, just as there must be for people who have cellular iPads (I do, though I’ve not used it’s cellular in years, I realised paying for more than one was folly), but I think it’s probably a pretty small market overall.

 

[UBS28]

Because they want to keep a barrier between the iPad and MAC. If Apple did not artificially put up all these software barriers preventing the iPad Pro to do everything a Mac can do, the 13” MBA and 13” MBP wouldn’t even exist basically. But Apple does put it so they can sell you 2 devices, an iPad and a MBP.

For the same reason, Apple will never put all the iPad features on a MAC, like 5G.

 

[osx'r]

By forcing people to tether, they encourage people to buy multiple devices.

TBH, I bought an iPad with 5G support thinking it would be useful in a pinch. We’ve not used it once. However, tethering to my phone is a common thing we do.

 

[Tagbert]

By forcing people to tether, they encourage people to buy multiple devices.

TBH, I bought an iPad with 5G support thinking it would be useful in a pinch. We’ve not used it once. However, tethering to my phone is a common thing we do.

It’s more likely that it hasn’t been worth doing so far.

1. The licensing costs for a Qualcomm modem would be expensive (it’s a percentage of the total sale price for the device) and Apple’s modem isn’t ready yet.
2. Mac OS isn’t optimized for a metered data connection, yet.
3. Most people have access to Wi-Fi often enough to be satisfied. The ones that care can use their phones for tethering.
4. The market is probably not large. Few PC laptops come with cellular modems.

Having said that, I think that Apple will eventually offer this. It will get easier once they have their own modems and if they put the effort into putting some controls on the OS’s data streams.

 

[LonestarOne]

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.

Indeed. I don’t even go for the cellular option on iPads anymore. Between WiFi (which is available in 90% of the locations where I might want to use a laptop) and the iPhone hotspot, which covers most of the remainder, why would I want another modem and cellular subscription? Unless my iPhone battery is dead, but that’s a very niche scenario.

 

[JPack]

Surprised no one has mentioned this, but the hotspot on iPhone is slow. At most, it's around 100Mbps. There is significant overhead. It doesn't cut it for those who do real work.

There's a good reason why Apple added 5G to iPad Pro instead of relying on hotspot.