Will Huawei Sell Its 5G Chips to Apple?

While everyone has their eyes on 5G technology, the Chinese tech giant Huawei is holding all the trumps. When asked if the company was to sell its self-developed 5G modems to Apple, Huawei chose not to comment.

Insiders told Chinese media Ifeng Tech that “the one-sided love is not going to work,” implying Engadget’s report saying Huawei will be “open” to sell the 5G Balong 5000 chipsets exclusively to Apple was not solid.

“Balong is mainly used for supporting Huawei’s smart products, such as phones and IoT products, and is currently for Huawei’s internal use only,” a Huawei representative said earlier this year.

Offering an olive branch of 5G technology to one of its biggest rivals is surprising for Huawei. The Chinese company might be Apple’s last chance as Apple was turned down by Qualcomm and Samsung in purchasing 5G chips.

Huawei launches the world’s first single-chip multi-mode modem
Huawei launches the world’s first single-chip multi-mode modem (Source: Huawei)

Huawei announced its first 5G chip Balong 5000 and the Huawei 5G CPE Pro, the first commercial 5G device powered by the chip, in Feburary at this year’s Mobile World Congress. The company said that the chip can download at a speed as fast as 6.5 Gbps, 10 times faster than top 4G LTE speeds today. And it supports a broad range of 5G products other than smartphones, such as home broadband devices, vehicle-mounted devices, and 5G modules.

The Huawei 5G CPE Pro achieves a high speed of 3.2 Gbps in live network tests
The Huawei 5G CPE Pro achieves a high speed of 3.2 Gbps in live network tests (Source: Huawei)

“The Balong 5000 will open up a whole new world to consumers,” said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group.

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