Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. said today that it has finally begun mass-producing 5G modem chipsets to be used in the next generation of mobile devices.

Samsung’s 5G modems are extremely important for the company, which besides being the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer is also a major component supplier to many of its competitors, including Apple Inc. Indeed, Samsung’s component and chip making business is actually bigger than its smartphone operation, and therefore critical to its financial performance.

The 5G chips will be a welcome relief for Samsung’s investors, who are still reeling from a profit warning it issued last month thanks to falling prices and lower demand for its memory chips. Early Friday in Korea, Samsung confirmed in a preliminary estimate for its first fiscal quarter that it will report its worst drop in operating profit in more than four years. It fell 60 percent, to about 6.2 trillion won ($5.5 billion), the company said, considerably less than the 6.93 trillion won analysts had expected.

Samsung sees the advent of 5G networks as a major opportunity for a turnaround, and it’s hopeful that will have a knock-on effect of boosting its smartphone sales.

The company has begun mass-producing three different 5G modems, including its Exynos Modem 5100, which will be used in smartphones and enable them to connect to just about every mobile standard. The Exynos RF 5500, meanwhile, is designed to support both legacy and 5G networks on a single chip, giving smartphone makers more flexibility. Last is the Exynos SM 5500, which is a power supply modulator that should boost the battery life of 5G smartphones that will handle increasing amounts of data.

“Samsung has been an innovator in mobile communication technologies with a strong portfolio of market-proven solutions, and we are well-prepared to extend our leadership into 5G,” Inyup Kang, president of the System LSI Business at Samsung, said in a statement. “Our multi-mode solutions will together enable powerful yet energy-efficient 5G performance along with the network versatility that allows users to stay connected wherever they are.”

Samsung hasn’t yet said which devices will be powered by its 5G modems, but it’s almost certain that its next generation of smartphones will get them first. The company will likely supply the modems to its competitors as well, though it seems that Apple will not be among them.

Apple’s 5G woes have been well-publicized lately. The iPhone maker has reportedly struggled to find a supplier of 5G modems for its devices and is therefore unlikely to be able to offer such capabilities until 2021 at the earliest, if recent reports are to be believed.

Apple’s problem is that its current supplier Intel Corp.’s 5G modems have been hit by development delays and are unlikely to see the light of day before 2021. Apple, which had originally targeted 2020 for its first 5G iPhones, according to reports, and it considered using Samsung modems as a backup plan in order to meet that target. However, Samsung reportedly told Apple that it had insufficient supply volume to meet its needs.

That has left Apple in a quandary, because there are no viable alternatives at this time. Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. could supply Apple with the 5G components it needs, but both options are out of the question.

Apple can’t deal with Qualcomm because of its long-running legal battle with that company, while Huawei’s modems are not an option because of U.S. government concerns that its technology could be used for spying. Meanwhile, another potential supplier, MediaTek Inc., is unlikely to have its 5G chips ready before 2021.

Apple will therefore likely be a full two years behind Samsung, which is set to launch its first 5G smartphone, the Galaxy S10, in South Korea this week.

Image: Samsung