Apple’s 5G chip-modem will arrive in 2025. The chip-modem on which Apple has been working for some time will arrive on iPhones in 2025. This was reported by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, citing his sources in the Cupertino company’s supply chain.
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Previously the same analyst had reported the possible exploitation of Apple’s 5G chip-modem in the fourth generation iPhone SE and it is not clear whether it will appear first in this alleged new iPhone model or directly on future generations.
In April this year, rumors circulated that Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone SE with 5G modem is expected in 2025; the chip-modem is expected to be built on TSMC’s 4nm process and only support sub-6 GHz bands, which means mmWave will not be supported initially.
Apple’s 5G modem should almost definitively untie Apple from Qualcomm, currently the exclusive supplier of the 5G chip-modem for Apple devices, including the entire iPhone 14 lineup. It has been rumored for some time that Apple aims to produce its own “in-house” 5G chip-modem, limiting its dependence on the American company, which is now also interested in producing processors capable of challenging those found in iPhones and Macs, a step that would favor Apple’s Android competitors.
Let us remember that even Qualcomm already in its internal forecasts for 2021 gave for certain the arrival of an Apple modem chip in 2023, anticipating to shareholders and investors a sharp drop in turnover resulting from Apple’s orders. But with the delay of the Apple component, Qualcomm has remained the exclusive supplier of modem chips for the iPhone so far.
In 2019, Apple and Qualcomm put an end to all ongoing legal disputes, including those with Apple’s subcontractors. The two companies have also entered into a six-year licensing agreement, valid from 1 April 2019 and with the possibility of extension for a further two years, and a multi-year agreement for the supply of chipsets.
Apple, we remember, in 2019 purchased the Intel division that dealt with the development of chip-modems, and has been working on the development of this module for years.