Apple is continuing to invest billions of dollars in the project that should lead to the creation of a chip modem made “at home” and say goodbye to Qualcomm. This was reported by Mark Gurman in the latest issue of his newsletter “Power On”, explaining that “thousands” of engineers are involved in the project in question and that the long-term goal is essentially to not depend on Qualcomm and perhaps even to integrate the modem into a future SoC.
“Even people inside Apple know that users don’t care who made the modem in their phone,” Gurman writes, explaining that it wouldn’t calm anything down from a user experience standpoint, but it won’t do so for Apple, which has to pay Qualcomm for every modem chip in an iPhone. According to Gurman, Apple’s goal is to reduce costs and save space inside iPhones, which would allow for more design choices. Ultimately, eliminating a current component would make room for new components and features.
Previously, there were rumors that Apple’s first modem chip would appear in the fourth-generation iPhone SE. Recall that even Qualcomm already in its internal forecast for 2021 assumed for certain the arrival of an Apple modem chip in 2023, anticipating to shareholders and investors a sharp decline in revenue from Apple’s orders. But with the delay of the Apple component, Qualcomm has so far remained the exclusive supplier of modem chips for the iPhone.
In 2019, Apple and Qualcomm settled all ongoing legal disputes, including those with Apple’s subcontractors. The two companies also entered into a six-year licensing agreement, effective April 1, 2019, with the possibility of an additional two years, and a multi-year chipset supply agreement.
Apple, let us remember, in 2019 acquired the Intel division that dealt with the development of chip modems, and has been dealing with the development of this module for years.