Apple Considering Eliminating Qualcomm Chips From Next Year's iPhones and iPads

[KingslayerG5]

Not all 4G Verizons will work on T-Mobile and AT&T even if unlocked. People need to look up the different bands. But with iPhones, Pixels, and recent Samsungs, they tend to work.

Toss out Sprint and think of Verizon having O-negative blood. It's the universal donor. Verizon-bought iPhone or Pixel will work flawlessly on AT&T and T-Mobile.

 

[VoilaiPhone]

Good! I hope Apple puts these criminals out of business. Steve Jobs invented the iPhone, not Qualcomm!

You clearly don't have a clue how engineering works.

 

[jack5150]

aapl's outgoing gc sewell said in a candid interview that aapl shouldn't have to pay more than $4 in royalty (aapl's cms are under contract for $10-12). aapl continues to generate billions in profits on qcom's patented technologies but are paying nothing (sewell concedes they owe something). innovators like qcom invests billions in r&d and they shouldn't be paid?

 

[aidler]

Qualcomm makes better chips and they undoubtedly have no other recourse in this dispute but I think ultimately this will destroy them.

 

[carpleror]

Settle for worse to make a point...and they say Steve Jobs is dead!

Possibly the only thing Apple has done that Steve would approve of

 

[VoilaiPhone]

Apple : "Too ****ing expensive. Let's negotiate."
Qualcomm : "We have our rights.. Patents.. Technology.."
Apple : "But we Apple though! **** you. I'm going with Intel and paying you less or not at all."
Qualcomm : "WTF?"

 

[MH01]

Go ahead and drop them, though intel are not upto par. My iPhone 7 has inferior reception to my 6S

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

Honestly, I'm thinking about dropping Apple from my next-years lineup.

Greed is what's going to choke the company out this time.

 

[gtg465x]

and we end up with the ****** intel modems... smh....

Anecdotal, but my wife’s iPhone 7 with Intel modem usually gets equal reception to my iPhone 7 Plus with Qualcomm modem, and sometimes it even gets better reception, like at her parent’s house where my phone usually gets 1 bar and hers gets 3. It also doesn’t seem to have the problem of failing to reconnect after going out of and back into a service area like mine sometimes does. I am actually happy to get the Intel modem iPhone X this year, especially after hearing this story. Apple will likely be putting more effort into optimizing their Intel modems from here on since they are phasing out Qualcomm.

 

[JosephAW]

I thought the reason was because the govmnt will make them turn on the FM radio.

 

[jamesrick80]

Next year Apple will have the slowest modems......

 

[littyboy]

Anecdotal, but my wife’s iPhone 7 with Intel modem usually gets equal reception to my iPhone 7 Plus with Qualcomm modem, and sometimes it even gets better reception, like at her parent’s house where my phone usually gets 1 bar and hers gets 3. It also doesn’t seem to have the problem of failing to reconnect after going out of and back into a service area like mine sometimes does. I am actually happy to get the Intel modem iPhone X this year, especially after hearing this story. Apple will likely be putting more effort into optimizing their Intel modems from here on since they are phasing out Qualcomm.

There was actually an article about how Apple purposely did software update to manually slowdown/degrade the qualcomm modem to match the Intel modem. You may have experienced that.

 

[FFR]

Anecdotal, but my wife’s iPhone 7 with Intel modem usually gets equal reception to my iPhone 7 Plus with Qualcomm modem, and sometimes it even gets better reception, like at her parent’s house where my phone usually gets 1 bar and hers gets 3. It also doesn’t seem to have the problem of failing to reconnect after going out of and back into a service area like mine sometimes does. I am actually happy to get the Intel modem iPhone X this year, especially after hearing this story. Apple will likely be putting more effort into optimizing their Intel modems from here on since they are phasing out Qualcomm.

No problems with my intel modem on my 7 plus:

Or 8 plus

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

It's not dumb when Qualcomm is basically trying to be a big bully and Apple is really the only company trying to stand up to them. Why do business with a company that wants to hold a portion of their profits hostage? There's a reason other companies are lining up to support Apple in this and not Qualcomm.

What other companies have come out in favor of Apple in this matter?

Also, it's ultimately Apple who sets the final price of the iPhone, not Qualcomm. Apple can raise their prices (and they have been) to earn a higher profit on each phone. Apple is setting their price, and so is Qualcomm. I don't blame Qualcomm one bit.

What Apple is saying is that Qualcomm should make less profits so that Apple can make more profits. That's a good way to make enemies... real fast.

 

[FFR]

Next year Apple will have the slowest modems......

But the fastest processors
iPhone X > note 8

 

[kdarling]

If Verizon and Sprint would quit using CDMA, this would be a non issue

GSM 3G also uses CDMA. So Qualcomm gets paid royalties anyway.

...but Apple still has to pay Qualcomm royalties based on the technology. Not as much for sure, but they still pay. So Qualcomm is still in the picture.

Exactly, and very much so.

Qualcomm gets paid the same royalties no matter whose chip is used. If Apple doesn't use QComm chips, only users get hurt.

That's because their chip business is more of a sideline, a valuable service to those wanting the best implementation of the standards. (Qualcomm contributed FRAND patents necessary for standards, but not all their optimizations. They can sell the latter for any price.)

Which is double paying because intel has already paid. Why should vendors downstream have to pay too?

There is no double dipping since Intel has not paid for the IP that Qualcomm licenses. No chipmaker does. Chips can be made and sold by anyone, competing on price and features alone. Heck, a lower chip price that's why MediaTek sells so well to Chinese phone makers.

Cellular IP licenses are directly and only paid by the phone makers instead.

And not just to Qualcomm. Don't forget Apple also needs licenses from Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, LG and many other FRAND contributors... all of whom have royalties based on phone price.

 

[cmaier]

What other companies have come out in favor of Apple in this matter?

Also, it's ultimately Apple who sets the final price of the iPhone, not Qualcomm. Apple can raise their prices (and they have been) to earn a higher profit on each phone. Apple is setting their price, and so is Qualcomm. I don't blame Qualcomm one bit.

What Apple is saying is that Qualcomm should make less profits so that Apple can make more profits. That's a good way to make enemies... real fast.

Dozens of companies have come out in favor Apple.

 

[Abazigal]

What other companies have come out in favor of Apple in this matter?

Also, it's ultimately Apple who sets the final price of the iPhone, not Qualcomm. Apple can raise their prices (and they have been) to earn a higher profit on each phone. Apple is setting their price, and so is Qualcomm. I don't blame Qualcomm one bit.

What Apple is saying is that Qualcomm should make less profits so that Apple can make more profits. That's a good way to make enemies... real fast.

Samsung. Google. Intel. Even amazon. Qualcomm’s predatory pricing isn’t winning it any allies here.

This is how I like Apple. Strong enough to stand up to any foe, no matter how strong.

 

[gtg465x]

There was actually an article about how Apple purposely did software update to manually slowdown/degrade the qualcomm modem to match the Intel modem. You may have experienced that.

Well, end result for me is still the same... the Qualcomm modem in my iPhone doesn’t seem to perform any better than the Intel one in my wife’s phone. Last year I went out of my way to get a Verizon phone to use on AT&T just because I was sure the Qualcomm modem was vastly better. And maybe it is technically, but I haven’t seen that bear out over the last year when comparing them side by side, so this year I just didn’t worry about it and happily bought an AT&T iPhone X with Intel modem.

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

Samsung. Google. Intel. Even amazon. Qualcomm’s predatory pricing isn’t winning it any allies here.

This is how I like Apple. Strong enough to stand up to any foe, no matter how strong.

God Apple needs to be regulated more than anything. (you could probably extend this to all of the other tech companies as well)

Otherwise, we end up with stories like this one where Apple is strong and demanding- just like you like...

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-reason-apple-sapphire-supplier-gtat-went-bankrupt-2014-11

 

[fairuz]

God Apple needs to be regulated more than anything. (you could probably extend this to all of the other tech companies as well)

Otherwise, we end up with stories like this one where Apple is strong and demanding- just like you like...

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-reason-apple-sapphire-supplier-gtat-went-bankrupt-2014-11

There's fierce competition among many smartphone vendors, but there aren't many suppliers. And suppliers can easily patent their parts. So generally, Qualcomm is going to be the one abusing market power. We'd better hope Intel can bring in competition.

We all followed the sapphire fiasco, and it was never made clear what happened. Either Apple violated a contract, or the plant shot itself in the foot trying to appeal to Apple.

 

[Viper2005]

What other companies have come out in favor of Apple in this matter?

Also, it's ultimately Apple who sets the final price of the iPhone, not Qualcomm. Apple can raise their prices (and they have been) to earn a higher profit on each phone. Apple is setting their price, and so is Qualcomm. I don't blame Qualcomm one bit.

What Apple is saying is that Qualcomm should make less profits so that Apple can make more profits. That's a good way to make enemies... real fast.

So this newbie bully (Qualcomm) is trying to bully the master bully (Apple) and actually expect to win? lol
Apple needs to kick them to the curb and make an example of them so their other suppliers don't try to pull something similar in the future!

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

There's fierce competition among many smartphone vendors, but there aren't many suppliers. And suppliers can easily patent their parts. So generally, Qualcomm is going to be the one abusing market power. We'd better hope Intel can bring in competition.

Why do you hope that?

Do you think Apple will price the iPhone X $8 cheaper for their customers?

 

[kdarling]

Samsung. Google. Intel. Even amazon. Qualcomm’s predatory pricing isn’t winning it any allies here.

Apple suing others over obvious IP didn't win it any allies either

It's not the pricing method that the other companies or givernments are really being supportive over, btw. Charging by phone price is decades old and not an uncommon IP licensing method in general.

What they're unhappy about, are other QComm license requirements such as having to pay for a full IP license instead of just for the technologies they use.

Thus, for example, the Chinese government recently upheld the fee method based on phone price, but required two different rates depending on whether all comm modes were being used, or just LTE.

This is how I like Apple. Strong enough to stand up to any foe, no matter how strong.

Apple "stands up" to anyone other than itself making high profits.

That's all this is about. IPhone prices won't fall. Apple's coffers will simply get fuller, and companies such as Qualcomm will have less incentive to do as much R&D. Apple isn't the one who helped invent 3/4/5G. They only use it to profit from.

 

[fairuz]

Why do you hope that?

Do you think Apple will price the iPhone X $8 cheaper for their customers?

Apple will sell cheaper phones if the parts are cheaper. Maybe it won't affect it as much, but everyone else also buys from Qualcomm, and it'll affect their pricing more. Besides, anti-competitive practice hurts the industry in many less apparent ways.