The Mobile World Congress is held this week, and if you are an Apple fan, there are many interesting stories that you probably did not know. MWC is an Android show, but there are some releases and announcements that will interest iPhone users. We’ve boiled down a week’s worth of events down to just five announcements Apple fans need to know:
Reality One is revolutionizing AR
One of the biggest surprises of the show happened on the first day. Android phone maker Xiaomi has unveiled a prototype for a pair of AR smart glasses with hand gestures, “retina level” screens, and a completely wireless design. If this sounds like Apple’s rumored AR headset, you’re right. While the design is certainly tasteful and it’s only a prototype, it’s clear that Apple’s headset is already impacting the AR landscape—and it’s not yet over.
Xiaomi
MagSafe is about to get better
After announcing at CES that the Q12 standard will be based on Apple’s “magnetic power profile,” the Wireless Power Consortium showed off the first Qi2 magnetic chargers for Android phones at MWC, and look, they’re identical to MagSafe. So much so that they work on iPhones out of the box. Since Apple has kind of let MagSafe languish for the past couple of years, maybe we’ll finally get some good third-party accessories.
Apple rejects Qualcomm
You’ll be hard-pressed to find an iPhone on the MWC floor, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t talking about it. And Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has a lot to say, especially about the modem it makes for the iPhone: “We’re not planning for 2024, my planning is that we’re not giving. [Apple] a modem in ’24, but it was their decision to make. So it looks like the upcoming iPhone 15 will be the last to use Qualcomm’s modem, which is the same 5G modem that Android phones have had for years. That might not matter much to users, but it’s another piece of the iPhone that Apple controls.
Nothing is coming for the iPhone
One of the hottest Android phones in 2022 is the Nothing Phone, with its amazing light-up back and aggressive pricing. The only catch is that it is not available in the US CEO Carl Pei announced at MWC that the No Phone 2 is coming this year and will be available in the United States. Pei has previously spoken in depth about wanting to take on Apple, so that means the iPhone 15 will have less competition this year – it doesn’t matter.
The Nothing Phone 2 will launch in the US this year.
Foundry
The iSIM is the next eSIM
Apple surprised us last year by making the iPhone 14 fully eSIM in the U.S. After some early headaches, it turned out well for everyone—especially as more Android phones followed suit . And the next generation of SIM is here: iSIM. Qualcomm unveiled a modified version of its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset for high-end Android phones with a SIM integrated directly into the chip, making it smaller and more power efficient than eSIM . We haven’t heard any rumors about Apple using iSIM in the new A17 chip, but it certainly seems like the kind of technological advancement that Apple is quick to pursue.