According to Bloomberg, Apple is developing a new in-house processor that will enable cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth features on its devices. According to Bloomberg, the corporation is also building its own chip to replace the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips it now uses from Broadcom, which it hopes to employ in products by 2025.
Bloomberg also revealed fresh details regarding Apple’s plans to create its own cellular modems to compete with Qualcomm’s. While Qualcomm previously said that it intends to have the “vast bulk” of 5G modems for 2023 iPhones by its Q4 2022 results, Bloomberg claims that Apple would utilise its own modems “by the end of 2024 or early 2025.” Apple will reportedly begin by deploying its proprietary modem in one device and gradually transfer them over the course of three years.
When approached for comment, Qualcomm spokeswoman Clare Conley referred to what the firm stated during its Q4 earnings call: “For Apple product revenue, we now anticipate to have the great majority of share of 5G modems for the 2023 iPhone launch, up from our prior 20% forecast. Aside from that, our planning assumptions have not changed, and we are projecting a minor contribution from Apple product sales in fiscal ’25.”
If Apple does bring these alleged chips to market, they will be another addition to the company’s expanding array of bespoke processors, which currently includes the A-series system-on-a-chip portfolio. The cellular modem, on the other hand, seems to be difficult to design. The firm purchased “the bulk” of Intel’s smartphone modem business in 2019, and Nikkei claimed in 2021 that Apple intended to deploy its own 5G modem beginning in 2023, but Qualcomm’s latest statements imply that Apple would not convert until at least 2024.
