While Apple may be the leader in the design aspect of consumer tech, in the hardware world, Intel is set to pip them at the post by providing their users with Wi-Fi 7 devices by as early as 2024. The Big Blue is set to release its first wave of Wi-Fi 7-enabled products by 2024. Apple, on the other hand, will be just reaching the older 6E standard by that time.
The two companies have been at it for quite some time now. Apple ditched Intel in 2020 in favour of their in-house M series of processors for their computers. Since then, with each release, there are fewer products in Apple’s lineup that sport Intel’s chip. And Apple, in every presentation, makes it a point to compare the performance of their chips with that of Intel, while the blue corner folks toil away, making their own efforts to one-up Apple’s processors.
For now, it seems that Intel is inching ahead, at least in giving its consumers a taste of the latest generation of Wi-Fi tech. That is what Eric McLaughlin, Intel’s VP of wireless solutions, claims, as reported by ETNews. Eric, in a recent press conference, said, “We are currently developing Intel's Wi-Fi '802.11be' in order to obtain the 'Wi-Fi Alliance' certification, and it will be installed in PC products such as laptops by 2024. We expect it to appear in major markets in 2025.” He further shed light on the capabilities of Wi-Fi 7 and said, "Wi-Fi 7 almost doubles the frequency bandwidth of 802.11ax (170 MHz) to 320 MHz and doubles the speed of Wi-Fi. Since there is more than a year left before the release of 802.11be, there is still a chance that we could improve the processing speed even further."
Apple is still in the process of bringing Wi-Fi 6E to its products. If things are to go the way that they are right now, Intel might as well come ahead. However, Apple being Apple might surprise all of us. Anyway, the consumers will get better network performance at the end of the day, so it’s a win!
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