You do realize Intel have been making modem chips way before Apple's involvement. When I say 'modem' I am referring to a 'communications chip'. For years many of Dell and HP's laptops had Intel wifi cards in them.
Sounds like a real problem with management / leadership. It sounds like these managers/project leads need to get more training (or fired) and the level above need to understand the consequences of siloing without an overall project lead.
Teams working on the project were "slowed by technical challenges, poor communication and managers split over the wisdom of trying to design the chips rather than buy them."
From the report:
Teams were siloed in separate groups across the U.S. and abroad without a global leader. Some managers discouraged the airing of bad news about delays or setbacks from engineers, leading to unrealistic goals and blown deadlines.
Apple doing it in-house would mean more control on the tech and being able to go beyond spec.
Yes, but they didn't stop working on the modem. What the article says it's that 1 years ago they had a modem comparable to the Qualcomm modem iPhone 11 had. Their mistake was to think they could be competitive in the industry in less than 5 years.
Apple like to play dirty in the business world but they do not like it when the table are turned and it is them on the receiving end. Take the app store for example. Apple designed it, built it, own it and thus do as they wish with it. Anyone that want's to use the app store is basically told 'You do it our way, you do it how we tell you, when we tell you and price it how ever we want' and if you do not like those terms you are free to go elsewhere' and many agree with Apple on these, even the courts agree with Apple on this but when companies do the same to Apple, oh hell there be fireworks. Apple like to treat others like dirt but when the tables are turned on them it's a whole different story.
In the last few years, Apple has spent billions of dollars attempting to develop its own modem chip to replace the Qualcomm modem chips that it uses in iPhones, but a new paywalled Wall Street Journal report suggests Apple's approach to the project has been dogged by unrealistic goals, a poor understanding of the challenges involved, and completely unusable prototypes.
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Apple's plan to design its own in-house modem led to the hiring of thousands of engineers: Apple acquired the majority of Intel's smartphone modem business in 2019, and as it filled the project's ranks with Intel engineers and others hired from Qualcomm, company executives set a goal to have the modem chip ready for fall 2023.
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Article Link: WSJ: Apple's 5G Modem Prototypes 'Three Years Behind Qualcomm's Best Chip'
In any company, the first thing people do before launching a major investment in a new product is a Buy versus Build analysis. Clearly Apple forgot that bit, or they ignored the outcome of the analysis due to the situation with Qualcomm back in 2018.
In the last few years, Apple has spent billions of dollars attempting to develop its own modem chip to replace the Qualcomm modem chips that it uses in iPhones, but a new paywalled Wall Street Journal report suggests Apple's approach to the project has been dogged by unrealistic goals, a poor understanding of the challenges involved, and completely unusable prototypes.
Apple's plan to design its own in-house modem led to the hiring of thousands of engineers: Apple acquired the majority of Intel's smartphone modem business in 2019, and as it filled the project's ranks with Intel engineers and others hired from Qualcomm, company executives set a goal to have the modem chip ready for fall 2023.
The modem chip project was codenamed Sinope, after the nymph in Greek mythology who outsmarted Zeus.
However, "it soon became apparent to many of the wireless experts on the project that meeting the goal was impossible," according to the report.
The obstacles to finishing the chip were "largely of Apple's own making," according to former company engineers and executives familiar with the project who spoke to WSJ. Teams working on the project were "slowed by technical challenges, poor communication and managers split over the wisdom of trying to design the chips rather than buy them."
From the report:
Apple's ability to design its own microprocessors for iPhones and iPads reportedly caused the company to think it could build modem chips. However, such chips transmit and receive wireless data from various types of wireless networks, and must comply with strict connectivity standards to serve wireless carriers around the world, making them a significantly more challenging undertaking.
Executives reportedly better understood the challenge after Apple tested its prototypes late last year. The results were so poor that the chips were "essentially three years behind Qualcomm's best modem chip," and using them threatened to make iPhone wireless speeds slower than its competitors, according to people familiar with the tests who spoke to WSJ.
Apple was forced to settle its lawsuit with Qualcomm and has since used Qualcomm 5G modem chips for its latest iPhone and iPad lineups. As it stands, 2025 may be the soonest that the technology is finally advanced enough for Apple to phase out Qualcomm, according to the report's sources.
"These delays indicate Apple didn't anticipate the complexity of the effort," said Serge Willenegger, a former longtime Qualcomm executive who spoke to WSJ. "Cellular is a monster." Underlining the significance of Apple's setback, the company last week extended its agreement to obtain modems from Qualcomm for three more years.
Article Link: WSJ: Apple's 5G Modem Prototypes 'Three Years Behind Qualcomm's Best Chip'
Or rather uphold these margins vis-a-vis competition from Android ...
