Apple's transition to its own silicon is one of the best decisions its made in recent years. Its ARM-based custom laptop chips are power-efficient beasts, electrifying this year's highly praised 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.
The Cupertino-based tech giant kicked Intel out of the window in favor Apple silicon, but its got another company in its crosshairs: Qualcomm. According to Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, Apple may be ditching its chips for its own data-connectivity components (via CNBC).
Could the iPhone 16 get an Apple-made modem?
Amon told CNBC that Apple hasn't discussed ordering modems for its 2024 devices, insinuating that the iPhone maker is poised to make a switch to its own modems.
"We're making no plans for 2024, my planning assumption is we're not providing [Apple] a modem in '24, but it's their decision to make," Cristiano Amon told CNBC at Mobile World Congress.
For years, Apple has used Qualcomm's modem chips for iPhones, but as 9to5Mac pointed out, the relationship between the two companies hasn't always been peachy. Five years ago, Apple said Qualcomm overcharged it by billions of dollars in an illegal double-dipping scheme. That same year, the legal battle intensified when Qualcomm accused Apple of blackmail. Things came to a head when Qualcomm said it will no longer sell its components to Apple for the iPhone XS and XR. In response, Apple planned to ditch Qualcomm for Intel, but unfortunately, Intel announced that it was leaving the 5G modem industry.
As such, the Cupertino-based tech giant had no choice but to make nice with Qualcomm, but behind the scenes, Apple was reportedly still working on its own modem design. After all, Apple did acquire Intel's smartphone modem arm in 2019, so speculation that Apple would go solo for its wireless connectivity has been heating up for years.
Apple's decreased dependence on third-party manufacturers has been a boon for the iPhone maker, so we're excited to see that the iPhone maker is reportedly making custom-made modems for the iPhone 16.
