Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple’s drawn-out effort to make its own 5G modem will reportedly begin to bear fruit in 2024. This will replace ones now sourced from Qualcomm.
And the iPhone-maker is also working to produce other wireless chips it currently gets from Broadcom.
Apple wants to drop Qualcomm from iPhone suppliers
Qualcomm currently produces the 5G cellular chips found inside iPhones and iPads. But after Qualcomm won a bitter, multi-year court fight over royalties and patent infringements, Apple has been developing its own 5G modem. This is intended to save the iPhone-maker money.
However, Apple has struggled to follow through with this plan. Earlier reports indicated Cupertino planned to start using its own modem in 2023, but it’s supposedly not going to make that deadline.
“Apple also aims to ready its first cellular modem chip by the end of 2024 or early 2025,” Bloomberg reports. It will gradually replace Qualcomm products.
And cut out Broadcom, too
Apple spends billions buying Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips from Broadcom. The company want to switch to in-house silicon for these, too. That’s going to happen in 2025, according to Bloomberg.
iPhone components come from suppliers all around the world, and Apple doesn’t seem inclined to make all of them itself. Chips are an exception, especially in the case of Qualcomm, who Apple clearly thinks charges too much for its products.