Apple isn’t yet ready with its own 5G modem, maybe

Apple G?

Despite years of work and billions of investment in developing its own 5G modem, Apple is sticking with Qualcomm 5G modems for next year’s iPhone 15.

No cold calls

There’s a couple of claims to suggest this:

• Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu told investors to expect the Qualcomm Snapdragon X75 modem will appear in the next iPhones.
• Qualcomm CFO, Akash Palkhiwala told investors during its Q4 fiscal call, “We now expect to have the vast majority of share of 5G modems for the 2023 iPhone launch, up from our previous 20 per cent assumption”.

This doesn’t mean Apple’s attempt to build its own 5G modem is over. The company will continue in this task, and even Palkhiwala concedes that his company currently anticipates “minimal contribution from Apple product revenues in fiscal ’25”.

What we know

We know that the Apple/Qualcomm deal has a shelf life, so there’s little doubt Cupertino will focus on finding its own way forward, rather than being forced to extend the existing arrangement.

All the same, it hints that Apple’s silicon engineers will be working pretty hard on creating the new part pretty fast.

That also hints we may see the first Apple 5G modems appearing in devices other than iPhones in late 2023/mid 2024, potentially in an iPad, I suppose. Apple will need to proliferate the devices to find any snags before putting them in the hands of millions with iPhones.

Faster, better, whatever

All four iPhone 15 models next year are expected to be equipped with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon X70 modem. This should deliver much faster speeds, better signal quality and significant (60%) improvement in power efficiency.

We know Qualcomm continues to improve its offer. Recent real-world tests show the new iPhone 14 Pro to be 38% faster over 5G networks than the preceding model, even as custom Apple hardware is confirmed.

iPhone component maker Murata Manufacturing, last year said it intended to invest around $2 billion in growth plans, including 5G radio production and a second Thailand factory.

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