Apple’s first 5G modem chip arrives in 2024. iPhone 15 of 2023 will be the last model with a Qualcomm 5G modem chip: this is once again indirectly predicted by Cristiano Amon, CEO of the San Jose multinational. Apple has been working on making its own 5G modem chipset to replace the ones it buys from Qualcomm.
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While there haven’t been many rumors about when the replacement will happen, it was previously confirmed that Qualcomm will continue to power its own modems at least the upcoming iPhone 15 arriving in September this year. Now, Qualcomm’s CEO and chairman has publicly reported that the next 2023 iPhone will be the last with a non-Apple 5G modem.
More precisely interviewed on stage at the ongoing MWC23, Amon told Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal that the transition to Apple modems will take place soon:
We expect Apple to make their own modem in 2024, but if they need ours they know where to find us
At one point, Qualcomm told its investors it would make modems for just 20% of Apple’s 2023 iPhone release. This prediction later changed to “the majority” of the 2023 iPhone lineup. The change it appears to be because Apple failed to produce a proprietary 5G modem in time.
Apple’s intention to build its own 5G chipset dates back to 2019, when it acquired Intel’s smartphone modem business, including its 2,200-strong engineer workforce. Ultimately, building your own modem means you don’t have to pay a third-party company, but there are other benefits as well.
For example, Apple could produce several 5G modem chips optimized and perfectly integrated with the rest of the iPhone and iPad hardware, as well as ad hoc versions tailored for Apple Watch and perhaps in the future also Mac.
It is thought that one of the reasons for the alleged postponement of the iPhone SE 4 is precisely the fact that Apple intended to use its own 5G modem chip inside this terminal, but the results were not the best, not when compared to the modem version of Qualcomm.
This anticipation could also indicate that in 2024 the first Apple device equipped with a proprietary 5G modem chip, designed in-house and built as always by TSMC, may not be the iPhone 16, but a new iPhone SE.
