Apple and Huawei are both set to launch new flagships in the second half of the year, including the iPhone 11 and Huawei Mate 30 that will launch in September, and October, respectively. Huawei might be dealing with a huge headache right now as its ability to do business has been seriously hit by the Trump ban, but it’s likely that the Mate 30 launch will proceed as scheduled. When the iPhone 11 and Mate 30 do launch, they’ll pack the fastest processors of the year, with Apple’s A13 likely to be the more powerful of the two.
We saw the same thing happen about a year ago. Huawei was first to announce a 7nm processor for mobile devices, the Kirin 980 that eventually powered the Mate 20. However, it was Apple a few days later that actually launched the world’s first commercially available 7nm processor.
This year, TSMC is making a brand new type of 7nm chip using EUV lithography. The company has already started mass production, Digitimes reported on Friday. Separately, MyDrives noted that the Kirin 985 will be the first chip built to use the 7nm EUV tech, adding that Apple’s A13 will also get the same treatment. As was the case last year, Apple will probably be the first smartphone vendor to launch a product featuring a next-gen processor technology.
MyDrivers also says that TSMC will not stop supplying parts to Huawei in spite of the US restrictions. International companies don’t have to adhere to the import ban, although some of them did. One of them is ARM, a critical Huawei partner, because some of ARM’s tech is developed in the United States. Reports said last week that ARM had instructed all employees not to assist Huawei on the Kirin development front. That said, the Kirin 985 processor that will power the Mate 30 this year, and next year’s Huawei flagships for the first half of the year, is safe.
