It looks like Apple will have to continue relying on Qualcomm for a while
As it stands, many companies rely heavily on Qualcomm for a lot of their components for their smartphones and tablets. The most obvious would be the chipset that powers our phones, then there is also the GPU, and also the modem.
Now, Apple was reported to be trying to build its own 5G modem in a bid to reduce their reliance on Qualcomm, but that effort seems to have failed as there are multiple reports claiming that Apple is apparently calling it quits on their custom 5G modem development. This is according to a post by “yeux1122” on Naver, as well as a post on X by @Tech_Reve.
Breaking News: Apple is reported to discontinue its in-house modem development.
According to multiple sources, Apple is currently in the process of streamlining investments in its 5G modem development division and workforce over the past few years.
This suggests that attempts… pic.twitter.com/VrGkFhKfqQ
— Revegnus (@Tech_Reve) November 29, 2023
While none of this has been confirmed, it does lineup with earlier reports in which it was suggested that Apple was running into various issues and hurdles during the development process. It seems that whatever prototypes Apple developed were far behind whatever was already commercially available, not to mention there were issues with the Intel code Apple had inherited when they bought over Intel’s smartphone modem business.
It is unclear if Apple will attempt to pick this up again later on. The company is notorious for trying to do everything in-house where possible, and while they’ve had quite a bit of success with that, it looks like this 5G modem will have to be chalked up as a loss, at least for now.
Source: MacRumors