5G Set to Offer “Always-On” Notebooks a New Lease on Life

At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2020 event, the company announced plans for its widely anticipated shift to ARM-based Macs, taking it away from Intel’s x86 chips, which it has used since it switched over from IBM in 2006. This change brings all processor chips for Apple’s mobile devices in-house, including iPhones and iPads, which will be based on its custom A-series processor. The first Macs to carry the new chips will be available in late 2020, with Apple aiming to transition all Macs by 2022.

Apple is making the switch from using Intel chips to creating Macs using ARM-based silicon that brings efficiencies and better battery life without sacrificing performance. Indeed, Apple’s A-series chips have made huge gains in performance and already compete well in benchmarks against those from Intel—now, it will not have to rely on Intel for chipset launch dates and update cycles. By using its own ARM-based chips Apple can boost further Macs’ capabilities, benefitting from the deep integration between software and hardware that is found in the iPhone as well as utilizing features built into its chips, including custom-built Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), Secure Enclave, memory and storage controllers, and Machine Learning (ML) processors. It may also help to cut out some size constraints, possibly allowing Macs to be made thinner while also negating the need for fans.

The move by Apple should also benefit users, as implementing a common architecture will allow all of its devices—iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and now Macs—to work together more seamlessly, creating a better User Experience (UX) across these differing product types. In turn, this will make it much easier for developers to create apps that are capable of running across Apple devices, providing a richer and more seamless UX.

While there are many reasons Apple has chosen to bring its chipsets for Macs in-house, is this also a move that could signal a significant step for Apple toward 5G integration and “always-on” connectivity in its notebooks? The shift could pave the way to making it easier for all of Apple’s devices to enable 5G connectivity, potentially providing tight integration with its own 5G modems in the future after having bought the majority of Intel’s smartphone modems business, which was completed in December 2019.

If such a move were to come to fruition, it would boost the drive to create a 5G always-on notebook market. Specifically, it would join the Intel and MediaTek partnership, announced in November 2019, which aims to develop 5G reference design solutions for connected laptops and Personal Computers (PCs). Intel’s move to create these reference designs for notebooks is a key development that will help traditional notebook Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) tackle competition from their mobile counterparts while enabling mobile OEMs to differentiate on compute performance.

Despite the cellular-connect notebook market witnessing a series of false dawns, the move by Intel and MediaTek, possibly joined in the future by Apple, is an indication that the notebook and mobile value chains are on the edge of converging, which will bring always-on broadband experiences on the move to new device types beyond smartphones and owe much to the advent of 5G. Bringing this mobile experience to notebooks will be a major differentiator in what is to be a heavily contested market between traditional notebook OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo; smartphone OEMs such as Samsung, Xiaomi, and LG; and those that currently fall into both camps (notably Apple and Huawei).

Intel could well benefit from this development for several reasons, including its outreach to traditional notebook OEMs and their distribution channels and the ongoing partnerships it has with key OEMs, including Lenovo, Huawei, and Samsung. However, Intel is not alone in this initiative to create an always-on notebook environment and faces stiff competition from Qualcomm and its increasing selection of highly integrated modem-application processor Systems-on-Chips (SoCs), which are designed to deliver 5G cellular connectivity to various price points across premium, mainstream, and entry-level notebook and ultrabook devices.

The first 5G products using the Intel-MediaTek solution are to become available in early 2021, and are expected to appear in notebooks from Dell and HP. By comparison, if Apple is to use its own 5G modems in Macs, it is unlikely any will reach the market before 2022 at the earliest. It is expected that 5G will appear in Apple’s iPhones and iPads some time during 2020 and into early 2021, likely using modems from Qualcomm, which it may also turn to for creating earlier 5G Mac models. Other industry device vendors, such as Huawei and Samsung, also aim to benefit from their vertical integration and are all looking to introduce 5G into their lineups of connected compute devices, including tablet, ultrabook, and notebook products. In particular, Huawei has already added 5G to its MatePad Pro range of tablets and there is every suggestion that this level of connectivity will be extended to its Matebooks in the not-too-distant future.

For a long time, the industry has been eager to develop always-on mobile connected notebooks to enable users to enjoy broadband experiences on the move similar to fixed broadband. However, OEMs’ efforts to achieve this objective have had little success in the past, which is due to a number of technical and business challenges:

• Existing technologies such as 3G and LTE failed to offer adequate and consistent throughput required for supporting bandwidth-hungry personal computer applications.
• Contrary to smartphones, where cellular modems are central to the device reference design, cellular connectivity has so far been considered an add-on feature by notebook OEMs, which means the performance and battery life of these devices are not necessarily optimized. Indeed, cellular connectivity for notebooks has mostly occurred through the use of more flexible USB modems and wireless router products rather than integration. Integration also brings additional cost and higher retail prices, which have been most keenly felt in the tablets sector.
• The notebook ecosystem mainly operates outside the mobile value chain, with different OEMs, components procurements, apps developer communities, and distribution channels.

For the convergence of mobile and notebooks industries to happen they will both have to position 5G connectivity as a central feature in the design of 5G notebooks and PCs, with a focus on long battery life, thin and light designs, and always-on, always connected experiences. There is also an overriding need to provide a “smartphone-like” experience, harnessing innovation that has been nurtured for years in smartphones and connectivity and bringing them both to the notebooks sector. Companies like Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek, Samsung, Huawei, and, now, Apple, are all at the forefront pursuing this strategy.

Specifically, if Apple is to be part of the 5G always-on notebooks camp, this could be the impetus that the industry has craved as it becomes the catalyst that will help bolster demand in the sector. Partnerships, such as the one revealed between Intel and MediaTek, could also be crucial to this success, paving the way to bring engineering, system integration, and connectivity expertise together to deliver these enhanced, next-generation mobile compute experiences. The challenge will be to bring an always connected experience to a compute device that is on par with that expected of a smartphone, taking advantage of extended battery life and improved system performance and thereby helping to improve the UX and boost productivity. Indeed, Apple is set to achieve such a feat by utilizing its A-series chipset, thereby implementing deep integration between software and hardware across all its devices. If nothing else, this is another crucial step toward establishing a wider 5G ecosystem that extends beyond smartphones and leverages the technology to the mass market and a variety of vertical marketplaces.

It is expected that dozens of always-on 5G portable device models, tablets, notebooks, and ultrabooks will hit the market in 2020 and, according to ABI Research, sales of these 5G devices will exceed 10 million by 2022. The market for 5G deployment in key consumer and commercial notebook segments will be heavily contested between traditional notebook OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo and OEMs that are building a common architecture across their mobile devices, notably Apple, Samsung, and Huawei.

So, thanks to the emergence of 5G, 2020 will see the portable computing and mobile value chains converging more than ever before to bring always-on broadband experiences on the move to new device types beyond smartphones, opening the door to a unique value proposition and far improved new UX. The market will also be buoyed by the emergence of new types of mobile consumer and business applications specifically designed for this type of device, as well as access to a plethora of online mobile applications that can be ported from the smartphone world.