Apple to Discontinue Custom 5G Modem Development, Claim Reports

[jz0309]

6G is already well into development. You can search for breakdowns of 6G patents and countries.

The real issue is Apple attempted a moonshot. They tried a modem without doing Wi-Fi or BT. It would be like trying to make M1 without A4 first.

You’re suggesting that the wifi and BT silicon in the Apple Watch are 3rd party?

 

[jz0309]

Buy from the industry leader: Huawei…

You mean the company that is effectively banned in the US and other countries?

 

[CrysisDeu]

almost every chip is banned for Huawei
Huawei: new phone with almost all chips design in house in TWO years.
Apple: cannot design a modem after hiring people who was already producing 5g modem chips.

Good luck on any new product ventures Apple..

 

[Populus]

Honestly, I didn’t see this coming. I was convinced Apple was gonna make a really efficient modem and integrate it into the SoC.

 

[MareLuce]

Have you thought that there is IP there, which they need to work around to avoid paying fines. And maybe the alternative ways are either also under IP or they are not that efficient from the user perspective or worth investment from the business perspective. So it’s not about ‘can’t’, but if there is everything fine from legal and if it makes sence from business perspective.

Congrats on replying with a thoughtful, accurate comment to a naive, first level response.

 

[brofkand]

Trillion dollar company can’t do something like a simple 5g modem hmmm

My guess is they can but they'd end up having to license so many patents to do it, the savings would be negligible.

 

[MareLuce]

Honestly, I didn’t see this coming. I was convinced Apple was gonna make a really efficient modem and integrate it into the SoC.

Agreed.

Apple has proven its chip prowess with Apple Silicon. How can they not make modems?

Maybe Qualcomm has too much IP to work around.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Trillion dollar company can’t do something like a simple 5g modem hmmm

It's probably the least simple thing in the entire device actually.

Anything that can send data faster than 300bps is basically dark magic.

 

[4743913]

good. get them to work of affordable ssd and ram prices.

 

[macduke]

ram upgrades should probably cover the cost of such a large venture failing completely

IDK, $1200 to upgrade to a 4TB SSD is pretty insane as well. Although maybe that is supporting the Apple Car unit!

 

[flottenheimer]

[FAIL] Apple Car
[FAIL] AirPower
[FAIL] 5G Modem

What else belongs on this list?

 

[Attirex]

Truth = Apple discovered what many already know....5G is mind control nanobots.

 

[SactoGuy18]

This is why I expect Apple to get cross-license agreements with both Qualcomm and Broadcom for future cellular modem and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/UWB chips very soon. This could mean Apple could get the latest Qualcomm cellular modem chip only months after Qualcomm announces them in February of eacn year.

 

[JoEw]

qualcomm investors sigh in relief.

 

[mngdew]

Good. Seems like they can't manage it and really they don't need it. They just want it to save money and not have to pay Qualcomm. Best put people to work on something else and stick with Qualcomm. 99% of users won't notice or care what modem they use.

Developing its own modem wasn't for the sake of users. It was for Apple's profit margin and stock price.

 

[Radeon85]

I'd rather Qualcomm anyway as they have many years of experience and they work just fine.

 

[DonutHands]

Development obviously needed to end due to the covid outbreaks that kept happening.

 

[JPack]

You’re suggesting that the wifi and BT silicon in the Apple Watch are 3rd party?

I’m talking chips that are good enough for iPhone.

 

[ChrisA]

From the start, it was a really bad plan. Intel tries to design a 5G modem and after years of trying fails. So Apple buys the Intel unit that failed and tells them "try again". They do and they fail again.

Lesson learned: Don't buy losing teams thinking to can turn them around just by changing a few top managers and the company sign on the building.

 

[JPack]

Apple's only problem is wanting to create a better modem in both performance and power efficiency. None of those make a better modem for the purpose of an iPhone than Qualcomm and that's directly related to the patented IP Qualcomm has on their 5G modem design. Apple is not willing to make sacrifices, even out of spite.

Huawei already makes a faster 5.5G modem compared to Qualcomm. It also has two way satellite voice and SMS.

Apple doesn’t do spite? LOL. Explain iPhone 7 through 11. Apple literally crippled Qualcomm modems to match Intel performance.

 

[trusso]

Apple is not willing to make sacrifices, even out of spite.

Au contraire. Apple makes plenty of decisions out of spite. They spite their users. They spite their competition. I'm not an Apple hater, just a realist; you give far too much credit to Apple's public relations team and the lie that Apple is always working for the greater good.

 

[MasterControlProgram]

This reminds me of all that money they gave to GT Advanced to make sapphire screens for the iPhone...

 

[jhowarth]

Have you thought that there is IP there, which they need to work around to avoid paying fines. And maybe the alternative ways are either also under IP or they are not that efficient from the user perspective or worth investment from the business perspective. So it’s not about ‘can’t’, but if there is everything fine from legal and if it makes sence from business perspective.

More likely, they just discovered how insanely complex handling all of the cellular modes and nuances is. While Apple represents a large market, they probably realized that throwing the required resources at the problem would dwarf any potential savings, even in the long run, as no one outside of Apple would likely be an additional market for those chips.

 

[jhowarth]

Apple will probably now just focus on 6G technology which is just 5-7 years away

Except that 6G devices will have to drop back to 5G or earlier when that service is unavailable so they still have to solve all the same problems and even more so.

 

[jhowarth]

ARM is completely different. ARM's entire business is licensing IP cores. Qualcomm makes modems.

Have you not been paying attention? There is no world in which Qualcomm is going to give up Apple's modem business in exchange for cheap licensing of their patented IP. There's been lawsuits and settlements over this already. This was an attempt by Apple to get out from under Qualcomm's grip, and they ultimately seem to have determined it's not feasible.

Especially when we have an article today about how Apple is only paying 30 cents per chip to ARM for their IP.