Apple Considered Purchasing Intel's Smartphone Modem Chip Business

[NickName99]

I mean I'm pretty sure your grandparents back in the dial up days also thought "meh this is enough".

Pretty sure my grandma, literally taken from her family by the nazis back in the day, was not worried about dial up modem speed. Maybe dial down the snark a bit.

 

[SoN1NjA]

What is so special about 5G? Sure its faster but LTE is already fast so why is everyone obsessed about 5G? Also, it will take years before the coverage is present so surely there is no rush

5G needs to be pushed so everyone can adopt it, if everyone says “oh we’ll just wait” then the process will take decades and not years

 

[bn-7bc]

What is so special about 5G? Sure its faster but LTE is already fast so why is everyone obsessed about 5G? Also, it will take years before the coverage is present so surely there is no rush

It's not allways about throughput, for me the most interresteing thing is (if it comes true once 5g networks ar actually rolled out at scale) the reduced latency. as a comparison my usual rtt fr the first hop on 4G is about 40ms, this is or roughly the same as the rtt from me (SE cost of Norway to AMSix (Amstedam the Netherlands)

 

[Wanted797]

Except that you forgot that 5G requires rolling out fiber to build and connect more mini base station, as higher frequency cannot penetrate buildings as easily compared to previous 4G or 3G.

As for those who are scared of living near a cellular tower, whelp at least now we know 5G is going to increase the number of cellular towers all over the place. Meaning more exposure to RF radiation for us.

Why didn’t we conduct more study on technology like 5G’s high frequency wave towards human skin. Why are we rushing this when 4G is already fine for most of us?

We still have to lay fibre yes. But we can then give a number of devices, 5G, 4G and 3G all with one tower. We don’t need to run fibre to each house. Or continue to build should the regional town grow. Maybe add a tower after significant growth.

It won’t be “more” RF exposure necessarily. It will be higher frequency. But with high frequency as you said comes lower penetration. The 3G frequency is slamming into your body right now and has been for years.

Your last paragraph misses my point again. Yes, 4G is fine for most of us. For our phones. Like I said. 5G is for more than phones.

 

[Roger67]

Intel and Apple entered into discussions last summer and the talks continued for months, but ended right around the time Apple settled its legal dispute and reached a supply agreement with Qualcomm.
Article Link: Apple Considered Purchasing Intel's Smartphone Modem Chip Business

And there's more...Apple poached Intel's 5G guy.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...-modem-lead-just-prior-to-qualcomm-settlement

 

[techwhiz]

And there's more...Apple poached Intel's 5G guy.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...-modem-lead-just-prior-to-qualcomm-settlement

Correction. The quote was essential to 4G and a project engineer for 5G.
Being a project engineer does not make you "the guy".
Being one of the project architects, SoC or silicon architects, makes you one of the "guys/girls".
There is typically no single person on a project that complex that is make or break.

I've been on multiple SoC/chip teams and while losing a key member is a pain, it's not the end of the world. Everyone can be replaced.

And the 5G shuffle begins - Ruben Caballero leaves Apple.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...ect-lead-ruben-caballero-has-left-the-company

 

[PickUrPoison]

I’d say that paying the extra $1.50 (from
$7.50 to $9 per iPhone) is a steal. Basically Apple is paying $1.50 for 5G.

Oh it’s a steal all right. $7.50 was the 2007-2011 rate. For 3G. For Qualcomm’s SEP-only patents (afaik).

$9 is actually less than Apple paid 10+ years ago, after factoring in inflation. And Apple gets 5G and Qualcomm’s full 130,000+ patent portfolio. That means no more infringement actions from Qualcomm—at least for the next six to eight years. Qualcomm’s stated rate for a full-technology license is $20 (5% of the selling price which is capped at $400).

In addition:

1) a half-price $4.5 billion one-time payment to catch up on royalties, which last year Qualcomm said had accumulated to $7 billion but after two more quarters would have been $9+ billion.

2) a direct license that enables Apple to make their own modems.

3) a supply of Qualcomm’s 4G/5G modems, at a price acceptable to Apple, until they have their own baseband chip ready.

4) bilateral cessation of all legal actions worldwide.

As far as I can tell, Apple got everything they wanted from Qualcomm. Seems like Cook the master negotiator and supply chain guru brought Qualcomm to its knees, though the Apple-hate crowd vehemently claims the opposite.