In a note to clients — as noted by MacRumors — Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Thomas O’Malley say Apple’s custom-designed 5G cellular modem will likely debut in all 2023 iPhone models. The Sellers Research Group (that’s me) says that timetable sounds about right.
Apple acquired Intel’s smartphone modem business in July 2019 with the tech giant adding 2,200 Intel engineers to its chipset operations globally.
According to Fast Company at the time, Apple is burning the midnight oil to have its in-house-built modems ready and running by 2022. The article says that this is “a very aggressive timeline given all the development, testing, and certification work involved.”
“Apple’s acquisition of Intel’s 5G modem business will not only allow the iPhone manufacturer to gain world-class expertise in cellular modems, which is one of the most challenging areas in R&D, but also allow it to strike better deals with other major 5G patent holders,” said Dimitris Mavrakis, research director at tech market advisory firm, ABI Research. “Apple will also potentially be able to negotiate better terms with its current 5G suppliers as well as integrate parts of the 5G modem into its existing processors.
Apple currently uses Qualcomm modems, including the Snapdragon X55 modem in iPhone 12 models. In 2019, a legal settlement between Apple and Qualcomm revealed that Apple will likely use the Snapdragon X60 modem in 2021 iPhones, followed by the Snapdragon X65 modem in 2022 iPhones.
The accompanying image is courtesy of Redmond Pie.
1 Comment
Comments are closed.