Autonomous cars/trucks that can respond instantly over the network is the real money-making user model that 5G expected to arrive in a landslide and thus amortize their investment$ in the 5G network - well that has not happened.
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Kuo: Apple's 5G Modem to Rapidly Roll Out in iPhones Starting Next Year
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Economic benefit: fixed costs up front which are offset by not having to pay Qualcomm's "healthy" margins on modems. Lowers Apple's costs in the long run.
Technical benefit: being able to one day integrate the modem onto a single processing unit together with the CPU will save space and energy and will be difficult for competitors to match.
Strategic benefit: it fulfills Apple's creed of owning key technologies and frees them from being reliant on a single supplier (Qualcomm), thus giving them better bargaining power in any future negotiations.
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It will definitely include 4G. Many/most 5G NR networks worldwide do not yet operate in standalone (SA) mode and still rely on the LTE (4G) control plane, so it's often not even possible to connect to 5G without also connecting to the 4G network. Besides, there are still many places in the world where you can get a 4G signal but not a 5G one!
Not so sure about 2G and 3G, though. These networks are already being phased out in most countries and there just won't be a lot of 2G/3G networks left in operation by the time these devices ship. I could certainly see Apple skipping supporting them.
As to the insane claim that there is a monopoly in smartphone modems, everyone knows that is nuts.
With MediaTek, Samsung, Huawei/Hisilicon - plus UniSOC Apple having their own modem research - Qualcomm is nowhere close to being a monopoly.
I'd disagree. In any stack there are always efficiencies to be had if you focus. It's not only about the hardware, it's also about the software stack being smart about what it's doing and not doing to/with the hardware.
As with the original iphone design, doing work faster means being able to turn the hardware off faster. That's something qualcomm can't optimize for, being a general purpose chipset vendor.
You can always get more performance by customizing to your use cases. But it's expensive. In Apple's case it's probably worth it. After all, it's their work that made the vision pro possible. They're years ahead of Meta on the hardware side (a friend works at the googles part and was like 'damn').
Is this the 5G modem Apple bought from Intel? If yes, it's going to be a disaster. Intel modems are inferior to Qualcomm.
This is only interesting for Apple because it costs less money doing it themselves than paying Qualcomm.
This is only interesting for Apple because it costs less money doing it themselves than paying Qualcomm.
Developed by the former Intel modem business that Apple bought from Intel.
Not the same product.
Will/does Apple design its own antennas? Those are just as important for reliability and performance. A bad antenna can hobble a great transceiver just like a great antenna can improve a mediocre radio.
Apple probably won’t be able to avoid the Qualcomm Patents but will save money on designing themselves and having TSMC custom 3nm design manufacture it for them instead of paying Qualcomm to design it for them.
I'm looking hard for my benefit in the $200 RAM upgrade prices.
IPhone 16 might see the increased demand after all, just not for the reasons Apple hoped (AI).
I hope at least 4G performance will be decend, I don't really care about 5G. More battery hungry, no real benefits for phone use, and terrible, short range coverage, especially inside cities.
I hope at least 4G performance will be decend, I don't really care about 5G. More battery hungry, no real benefits for phone use, and terrible, short range coverage, especially inside cities.
How is Qualcomm a monopoly?
There are several manufacturers making modems.
You mentioned one.
How is the end near for Qualcomm?
Latest news has them buying parts of Intel.
Doesn't sound like a company nearing the end.
Yes, I am sure Qualcomm is shaking in their boots. BTW- the reports of the Pixel 9 aren't that great thus far and Samsung is using Qualcomm modems/SoC's in their upcoming phones. Odd that they'd not use their own SoC?
Qualcomm has a very diverse portfolio, they've moved into PC's, do a ton in Auto, VR/AR, etc. Oh... and every single phone maker (regardless of who makes the SoC or Modem, is paying them a licensing fee. But hey, I am sure the "end is near" as you say.
Or vastly underestimate the web of patent laws that hobble competitors…
If it’s an industry standard, the window on exclusivity should be short.
Do you really think Apple "ound a successful way around their patents"? You know, the ones that are part of a standard, that has been developed by Qualcomm and others. Do you not think the Samsung, Google, Mediatek, and countless others wouldn't have thought of this? They just extended their license through 2027 ~6 months ago.
Apple will save money if they can build an in-house modem. Perhaps they'll integrate it into their SoC, but there is almost zero chance they'll get around paying the "massive" $7.5 per phone to QCOM.
Why though? If it takes billions to develop and standardize- shouldn't the developers be able to profit from their invention/innovation?
To be fair this news is a surprise for me, all the news pertaining to this topic was the numerous delays and whatnot and how Apple is struggling and cancelling projects.
Who remembers everyone laughing at apple over the numerous delays on their modem? (I didn’t personally, as an engineer I know how difficult these things can be)
Kudos to apple! (+1 for added competition too)
Who remembers everyone laughing at apple over the numerous delays on their modem? (I didn’t personally, as an engineer I know how difficult these things can be)
Kudos to apple! (+1 for added competition too)
To be an industry standardard, the have to agree to "frand" rules.
Agree kudos to them- if they've pulled it off, but this isn't the first time this has been stated before. They also just renewed their deal with Qualcomm earlier this year through 2027
I'll take the wait and see approach- first- will we really see it in 2025. Second, if so- how is the performance. Outside of how the end users feel about it, the network operators will also have to accept the performance. Apple can always throttle the QCOM modem to perform similarly to theirs (as they've done in the past) but if has issues on the actual network, impacting other users, that would be a bigger issue (IMO).
FRaND is your friend.
Seriously, Apple has patents too, just so they can be cross licensed in these sorts of disputes.
Alternative, Apple is willing to accept a reduced level of modem performance to save some costs FOR SOME THEIR PHONES. And use that as an additional characteristic to differentiate their lower end phones from their higher priced “Pro” models.
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Why can’t Apple or Google just buy Qualcomm? That will solve a lot of problems with pricing
Yes they will first test out the Apple Custom modem in the lowest end model which will be the SE 4 and then if successful will implement the new custom modem in the iPhone 17 lineup in 2025 or 2026