Apple decided to start doing things in-house after making a complete shift in regards to its processors, from the A-series chips for the iPhone and iPad to the more recent M1 chip for its entire Mac line.
The company is also working towards bringing this unification to other products in its Mac lineup, be it the Mac Pro or the MacBook, in a bid to push localised production. Now, it seems the modems in use will also receive a major change.
It was revealed on Monday that Apple would be working on replacing its use of Qualcomm’s 5G modems with its own in-house modems, with early examples of its use debuting around 2023, with the first of such devices scheduled to launch during the same period.
Apple To Shift From Qualcomm Modems To Localised Modems
As per a report by MacRumours, the renowned Apple analyst recently revealed as part of his note to investors that Apple would likely opt to adopt its own 5G baseband chips in 2023 at the earliest.
The report further mentions that Apple has been working on its own modem designs since last year, a year after the company bought Intel’s smartphone modem business, complete with staff well versed with networking, who, at the time, were working on 5G related projects.
This is a bit of a good news-bad news situation, since this is in favour of Apple but will result in an overall hit when it comes to Qualcomm’s business since the loss of orders from the iPhone maker will make a significant dent in the overall revenue.
The analyst is probably hinting at the large foothold that the iPhone holds in the premium smartphone market, even managing to muster up a bit of a cult status. Additionally, the report quotes Kuo stating that Qualcomm could have competition from Mediatek in the budget segment.
Coming back to Apple’s side of the pond, it is a great decision that will offer improvements over third party integration with Qualcomm. Android devices make use of some of the fastest 5G modems, most of them supplied by Qualcomm, but Apple’s modems will provide better performance that might even put the former at risk.
Kuo does state that the devices such as the iPhone 13 and 14 will make use of Qualcomm chips, whilst the iPhone 15 might be the first device to sport the 5G modem from the Cupertino based company.
