Report: Apple’s 5G iPhone modems won’t arrive until at least the iPhone 18 (yes, really)
Earlier this week, Apple introduced a new three-year term agreement with Qualcomm to supply iPhone-ready 5G modem chips; a sign that the iPhone 16 will definitely not feature any proprietary 5G components designed exclusively for the iPhone.
5G modems are the crucial components that allow devices to make calls and connect to the internet. Apple is racing to develop its own 5G modems in an effort to reduce dependence on expensive third-party manufacturers like Qualcomm and optimize future iPhone connectivity. However, a new one WJ The report casts a damning light on the company’s inability to do this in a timely manner.
Apple’s previous deal with Qualcomm ended this year, and so did the semiconductor company assuming Apple would use its own iPhone modems starting in 2024. However, according to the WSJ, Apple now doesn’t expect to produce its own usable 5G iPhone chips until late 2025, which suggests we could wait until the iPhone 18 (yes, 18) for an iPhone with an Apple-made modem..
So why this delay? It sounds like Apple vastly underestimated the complexity of the task, and its hiring strategy hasn’t quite accelerated the modem development process as it initially envisioned.
Apple bought Intel’s entire modem division for $1 billion in 2020, but the Cupertino giant reportedly discovered “that harnessing the brute force of thousands of engineers – a successful strategy for designing the computing brains of its smartphones and laptops – was not was enough to quickly produce a superior modem chip.”
Modem chips are much more difficult to produce than chips to process, as they must work seamlessly with 5G, 4G, 3G and 2G wireless networks (as not every country has access to the same network standard). By comparison, the microprocessors used in iPhones run software designed exclusively for Apple products.
The WSJ notes that Apple executives who had no experience with wireless chips used tight timelines that were not realistic, and that significant time was wasted in certifying ultimately unusable prototype versions of chips to wireless carriers around the world.
“These delays indicate that Apple did not anticipate the complexity of the effort,” Serge Willenegger, a former Qualcomm executive who left the company in 2018, told WSJ. “Mobile is a monster.”
A completely self-reliant Apple?
Despite the dent in its 5G ambitions, Apple remains committed to bringing this and more of its manufacturing processes under one roof. Indeed, the company has a history of doing just that.
For example, in 2010, Apple stopped using Samsung’s processors to power its latest iPhones – the iPhone 4 was the first with a custom Apple chip – and the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) was the first Apple laptop that came without Intel. hardware.
In an effort to reduce its dependence on display component manufacturers such as Samsung and LG, Apple has also outlined plans to start using its own displays in its new mobile devices from 2024.
Only a fool would bet that Apple will achieve its internal goals in the not-too-distant future, but it appears that 5G modems will be the last – and most difficult – barrier the company must overcome.