On Tuesday Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Won 59 Patents Today Covering Millimeter Wave Yagi Antennas for 5G Ready iDevices & Gesturing on Apple Watch." A new report today informs us that as a new connectivity era dawns, reliance on high-bandwidth mmWave (Millimeter Wave) spectrum will increase, bringing new wireless experiences like ultra-high-definition 4K video streaming, Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR), mobile screen casting and fixed wireless mesh backhaul, all while providing high power efficiency to significantly extend battery life.

Although the report covered Qualcomm's new 60GHz WiFi portfolio, it's to be sure that Apple will be adopting a matching technology. So when we learn that Qualcomm's new 60GHz WiFi is on the way and capable of delivering further capabilities to future devices such as new Wi-Fi sensing, presence detection, gesture recognition, room mapping with precise location and improved facial feature detection, we can safely say that Apple will be able to deliver similar new features like in-air gesturing when 5G ready iPhones debut if they so choose.

The report further noted that "Qualcomm said the 60GHz WiFi solution is optimized on the 802.11ay specification that will deliver 4X today's bandwidth.

More specifically, Qualcomm Technologies announced a family of 60GHz WiFi chipsets (the QCA64x8 and QCA64x1, delivering 10+ gigabit-per-second (Gbps) network speeds and wire-equivalent latency.

Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity and networking, Qualcomm Technologies: "mmWave holds enormous potential to support a new class of user experiences, and Qualcomm Technologies is leading the charge with both its Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G NR modem family and unlicensed 60GHz Wi-Fi mmWave solution. Our 11ay solutions were developed with the flexibility to support a broad ecosystem of smartphone, router or fixed wireless access platforms and provides the industry with the critical building blocks needed to take connectivity performance to the next level."

Bryan Chang, general manager of Asustek Computer's Mobile Business Unit: "As consumers all around the world are increasingly relying on mobile devices to power their gaming and entertainment activities, they expect seamless experiences powered by unrivalled speed and ultra-low-latency. Our latest line of Republic of Gamers (ROG) mobile devices, including a gaming phone, are designed specifically to meet these high-performance mobile gaming needs while leveraging Qualcomm Technologies' existing 60GHz Wi-Fi solutions. We are happy to see Qualcomm Technologies continue their innovation on 60GHz-Wi-Fi technology." You could review the ROG Phone announcement here.

Once again, while the news was specifically about Qualcomm's new 60GHz WiFi chipset that will debut on 5G Android based smartphones in 2019, we can be sure that Apple will be delivering similar capabilities in due course.

One of the most interesting features mentioned in connection to 60GHz WiFi is in-air gesturing because Apple has so many patents on this future capability (01, 02, 03, 04, 05 and more).

Over and above patents, Apple Supplier Finisar, maker of VCSEL lasers for Face ID, pointed out in March that gesture recognition would be a future feature coming to market.

In the end, many Android smartphone players have experienced a bit of slow down in sales globally and a new fresh round of exciting feature and capabilities brought on by the new 5G connectivity era in 2019 is exactly what the industry needs to spur on a massive super upgrade cycle.