TECH NEWS – While Qualcomm is trying to get its chipmaking division from Intel (to strengthen its PC presence), the company is slowly losing one of its customers!

Apple has been working on its own 5G modem to rely less on Qualcomm, but there’s been little word on when the switch might happen, but now we’re hearing that the Cupertino-based company will gradually push back on Qualcomm’s technology and that a homemade 5G modem could appear in iPhones as early as 2025. The first model could be the iPhone SE 4, which will be available in the first half of 2025, so the speculation is in line with previous rumors.

My latest supply chain survey indicates that Apple’s in-house 5G chip shipments will grow rapidly and replace Qualcomm’s 5G chips. It’s estimated that Apple’s in-house 5G chip shipments will reach 35-40 million units in 2025, 90-110 million in 2026, and 160-180 million in 2027.… https://t.co/miNhd324S9

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) September 6, 2024

Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst, has said that Apple’s custom 5G modems will ship around 35-40 million units by next year. That’s not a small number, but by 2026 that number will jump to 90-110 million and by 2027 to 160-180 million. So it’s not going to be a bunch of them all at once, but a slow, gradual increase in production that will push Qualcomm’s modem back. The iPhone 17 Air could hit stores in the third quarter of 2025 (July-September), but it will likely launch alongside the iPhone 17 lineup in September.

Apple has an agreement with Qualcomm to use Qualcomm’s 5G modems through 2026, so there is a transition period, as there was when the company started using its own silicon in Macs instead of Intel’s. Intel’s modem business was bagged by the Cupertino company in 2019, and it will take time, investment, and research to leverage it. So far, we’ve heard that the company’s 5G modem will be slower, but will also have innovations… but we don’t know more than that yet.

Apple is currently preparing to launch the iPhone 16 lineup, and the four models (as the Plus, Pro and Pro Max will be in stores alongside the base model) will be unveiled on Monday. They will also feature Qualcomm’s modem.

Source: WCCFTech