Sounds like someone has never heard of mmWave...
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Qualcomm Predicted to Remain 5G Modem Supplier for iPhone 15 and iPhone 16
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mmW on a bunch of street corners doesn't make up for widespread mid-band 5G.
Its not just about the “quality” of your employees, but also: the environment they are working in, how much budget they have and most importantly how much time they get.
And that is the key. They needed those, I think it was more "we're buying Intel's patents and the rest is just along for the ride. If we get some good engineers (and the rest of the business), great, if not, we'll let them go."
And they’ve learned from that.
Flagship are the Pro models. The iPhone YPro will have to have the same performance modem-wise as the (Y-1)Pro, otherwise it would be a PR disaster…
I still expect to see Apple modems show up in iPad and low end iPhones first. Got to get real life experience first.
I bet it is patents that are making it hard for Apple to come out with their own modem cost-effectively. QC and Intel likely have the monopoly on the tech.
I’m tired of these “theoretical speeds” that nobody ever seems to get. Saying it could be up to 10Gbps is meaningless to me, especially if it’s the mmWave crap that cuts the signal if you open an umbrella or turn your body. In reality none of this matters except for power efficiency improvements moving to a smaller process node from TSMC. The vast majority of people have all had mobile speeds between 50-150Mbps for the past decade. I mean just look at these average results from Speedtest.net from August:
T-Mobile
117Mbps / 12Mbps
Verizon Wireless
60Mbps / 9Mbps
AT&T
55Mbps / 7Mbps
I was getting 30-40Mbps on Verizon LTE in 2012 on my iPhone 5. Things have barely improved on average.
As for my iPhone 14 Pro, I just got 260Mbps down and 10Mbps up. Or in other words, 2.6% of the maximum theoretical speed of 10Gbps. Which is why that number really doesn’t matter.
T-Mobile
117Mbps / 12Mbps
Verizon Wireless
60Mbps / 9Mbps
AT&T
55Mbps / 7Mbps
I was getting 30-40Mbps on Verizon LTE in 2012 on my iPhone 5. Things have barely improved on average.
As for my iPhone 14 Pro, I just got 260Mbps down and 10Mbps up. Or in other words, 2.6% of the maximum theoretical speed of 10Gbps. Which is why that number really doesn’t matter.
Uhh… because it is a first iteration of a product that a giant such as Intel wasn’t able to perfect or market against the competition.
When Apple went with Intel not only they had reception problems but also battery issues. Yes, Apple can improve it, but it will likely take them years before they can compete with Qualcomm, who has been coming up with better and more efficient modems every year for decades.
It’s great…provided you’ve got a clear line of sight without so much as a sheet of drywall in the way and you’re within a few hundred feet of the transmitter.
It makes sense in a stadium, it’s a joke expecting its advertised benefits literally anywhere else. Users likely don’t notice because the more resilient 5G signal takes over when you’re out of range of the mmWave variety.
It's not the patents, as you can license them. Even MediaTek has a few 5G modems out. It comes down to project execution.
oh absolutely, apple would bent hell on earth to not pay royalties, especially consider apple got it's own history of shady practices of not paying out royalties to lesser companies.
It's not just cellular, their cable modem chipsets (Intel Puma 6 & 7) are garbage too.
Sigh why use gps, whit dual freqyency gallileo you get below 1m ( horizontal) 5m ( vertical in 95% of cases without any augmentation ok it might but a bit if extra batery but the singel frequency aquracy us nothing to sniff at eiter
We may not like it! But no denying Qualcomm modems do work well.
Apple always use discrete modems since they are separate from the SoC.
I still remember Macrumorus and most of its comments were suggesting Apple could *cough* move mountains and have their own modem by *2020*.
"If they can make the world's best CPU they can make modem!"
And then 2021, 2022, 2023..... and what? We are 2025 now?
"If they can make the world's best CPU they can make modem!"
And then 2021, 2022, 2023..... and what? We are 2025 now?
The issue is not about design but the fact that Qualcomm holds a lot of patents that Apple would need to license to make their cellular modem even competitive. Those royalty payments could potential cost more than just inking a deal with Qualcomm and in addition do not have the costs of updating/designing newer cellular modems to keep with updated technology.
oh i thought they somehow integrated it ,im used to qualcom own SOC having qualcom integrated modem ig
You've gotta give credit to Apple here. Unlike what they did in the past with the Intel chips, they recognized that Qualcomm's chips are superior to what the alternative is. Even though Apple would undoubtably save money, it's not worth using an inferior product, even if it's your own product. Good job looking in the mirror and recognizing that their chips are nowhere near ready.
Exactly. Apple made a mistake, pivoted back to Qualcomm, and recovered. People expecting perfection 100% of the time is unrealistic.
I suspect they'll stay with them for quite awhile.
Sigh.
You have to paid Qualcomm for Patents regardless whether Apple use their Modem or not.