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Apple Hunting for Wireless Modem Engineers Near Qualcomm's San Diego Headquarters

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According to a new report out today by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Ian King, Apple is aggressively hiring engineers in San Diego, the headquarters of Qualcomm. Apple is looking for designers in San Diego who will help develop wireless components and processors for its iPhones, a move that would further weaken Qualcomm.

Apple posted 10 job listings in San Diego over the past month, looking for engineers to work on the company's Neural Engine artificial intelligence processor and wireless modems. This is the first time Apple has publicly recruited for these types of jobs in San Diego.

Apple is said to be working on building its own wireless chip for future iPhone models, but as of yet the company has relied on companies like Qualcomm and Intel for such technology.

Following the dispute with Qualcomm, Apple made Intel the exclusive supplier of wireless modems for the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR in 2018.

The two companies have been embroiled in a legal dispute since early 2017, with the most recent news suggesting that Apple is not in talks "at any level" to settle the dispute. Next, Apple is gearing up for a full legal trial with Qualcomm.

The lawsuits started when Apple in January 2017 sued Qualcomm for $1 billion, accusing Qualcomm of charging unfair royalties for "technologies they have nothing to do with" and failing to pay quarterly rebates. Apple and its suppliers stopped paying licensing fees at that time.

Qualcomm eventually filed a countersuit claiming that Apple had infringed on several of its patents, and attested that its technology is "at the heart of every iPhone." Since then, both companies have filed multiple lawsuits against one another, and Qualcomm even sought import and export bans on some iPhones in the United States and China.

Article Link: Apple Hunting for Wireless Modem Engineers Near Qualcomm's San Diego Headquarters
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/11/15/apple-hunting-qualcomm-headquarters/
PSA: to avoid being mistaken for a wireless modem engineer, do not wear their telltale thick glasses, flannel shirts, and lustrous hipster facial hair. Please advise family members to do the same until the end of wireless modem engineer season. Thank you.

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AngerDanger said:
PSA: to avoid being mistaken for a wireless modem engineer, do not wear their telltale thick glasses, flannel shirts, and lustrous hipster facial hair. Please advise family members to do the same until the end of wireless modem engineer season. Thank you.
Click to expand...

LOL, I was thinking along the same lines. Here's what popped into my head...

"Be vewy vewy qwiet, I'm hunting wyewess modem engineews."

elmer_fudd.jpg
 
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Whether it’s a better job or not would be still to be determined, however you know Apple is offering a better pay if they’re being stolen from QUALCOMM.

I just want 5G and stellar modem speeds by iPhone 11 please.
 
Andres Cantu said:
If you can’t beat em, steal their employees! ;)
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California does not allow non-compete employment clauses, so Qualcomm can't stop Apple from hiring these people, but it does make me wonder how much an ex-Qualcomm employee could contribute at Apple without using proprietary information they absorbed while working at Qualcomm.
 
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Baymowe335 said:
Real disaster, huh? Can almost find nothing about it besides the thread here that is barely active anymore. Apple will replace devices with issues. Doesn't seem to be a big deal, otherwise it would be in the news.
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Thousands of defective phones and Apple covered up the problem by removing post on there site and banning people. To this date there is still no fix for the problem. The thread may be slowing down cause most realize that Apple will not be able to fix bad hardware till next year.
 
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Oh my, it is getting hardcore in the silicon department there. I want to join them now, Electrical Engineering student here.
 
ROLLTIDE1 said:
Thousands of defective phones and Apple covered up the problem by removing post on there site and banning people. To this date there is still no fix for the problem. The thread may be slowing down cause most realize that Apple will not be able to fix bad hardware till next year.
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Darn... here I’ve been using my iPhone XS Max for over a month.... and didn’t even realize it wasn’t working the whole time!
 
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Good Apple is doing this, depending on Intel for nearly anything is turning out to have mediocre consequences (whether its CPU's or smartphone modems). Bad for Qualcomm. Qualcomm is lucky Apple doesn't sell its CPU's (and future modem chips) on the market.
 
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ROLLTIDE1 said:
Thousands of defective phones and Apple covered up the problem by removing post on there site and banning people. To this date there is still no fix for the problem. The thread may be slowing down cause most realize that Apple will not be able to fix bad hardware till next year.
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"Thousands" huh? Is that an accurate count? BTW, they've probably sold 30M+ of them. Some have problems, they take care of it. If this were a design flaw or other major issue, you'd be hearing A LOT more about it with that kind of volume.
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dominiongamma said:
Check the forum over 120 pages of the issue.
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Yeah, that doesn't mean it's a big problem either. 30M devices would not be able to be "swept under the rug" with a real design flaw.

You people are hilarious.
 
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Weaselboy said:
California does not allow non-compete employment clauses, so Qualcomm can't stop Apple from hiring these people, but it does make me wonder how much an ex-Qualcomm employee could contribute at Apple without using proprietary information they absorbed while working at Qualcomm.
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My first thought was that Apple must be setting aside a pile of money, not only for the engineers, but for the inevitable legal battles with Qualcomm that will arise (in addition to the current ones).
 
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Andres Cantu said:
If you can’t beat em, steal their employees! ;)
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That is a normal way of beating the competition- in nearly every industry. Ford tries to scoop up General Motors engineers. Boeing recruits Airbus. If you can make a better life for the employee you are recruiting, it’s a win all around. It raises salaries and fosters even more competition. What smart business doesn’t want to hire talented employees with demonstrated expertise in the field you are hiring for?
 
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Best of luck to them, but 10 engineers won't cut it. Cellular modems are really complex, much more so than other processors. Frankly, there's a lot of black magic that goes into interpreting the specs and producing a chip that is going to excel on today's modern networks. Qualcomm pioneered the specs and have been doing this for a long, long time, which is why (so far) no other company has been able to produce a modem that performs anywhere near as well. Best course of action would be for Apple and Qualcomm to settle in an equitable way, likely both making compromises as necessary — or Apple should just lay out the money to buy Qualcomm.
 
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In my mind, I am picturing several people from Apple in fatigues perched in trees adjacent to the Qualcomm campus. They each have a list of engineers' phone numbers and they take turns calling engineers to try to entice them to exit the building. When they exit, an ordinary van pulls up to whisk the engineer away to an undisclosed location where interrogation begins and an offer is made, perhaps. :D
 
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Trust me the xs max reception problems are real. I’m on the latest iOS update and my xs Max constantly drops calls loses Wifi coverage and WiFi calling randomly stops working. It’s a mess.
 
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