Surprise, Apple’s in-house 5G modem won’t be in iPhone 15

Apple’s in-house cellular modem chip, which has been in the news for a few years, won’t be inside the iPhone 15 to be launched today. Instead, the Cupertino, California-based company has signed a three-year supply pact with the leading 5G modem chipmaker Qualcomm for iPhones till 2026.

Figure 1 Qualcomm’s modem chip supports all commercial 5G bands from 600 MHz to 41 GHz, allowing FDD-TDD and mmWave-sub-6 aggregation along with standalone mmWave.

That apparently shows that Apple designers have hit a snag in their efforts to build an in-house 5G modem chip. The company has had more success on the computing side; it has successfully replaced Intel processors with homegrown chips in its Macs over the past years without many hitches. Even on the communications side, Apple is confident it will replace Broadcom’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips with in-house devices by 2025.

However, cellular modem chips have proven to be a different story. Though it entails common building blocks like RF, developing a good cellular modem has been quite hard. Just ask Intel, who sold its cellular modem unit to Apple in 2019 for nearly $1 billion. That’s when the news broke out about Apple’s ambitious plans to build the in-house cellular modem chips.

However, according to news reports that followed this story, Apple had started working on homegrown modem chips in 2018 and then bought Intel’s modem business, so it doesn’t start from scratch. In 2020, Apple’s semiconductors chief, Johny Srouji, called this undertaking a “key strategy transition.” Some industry analysts even expected Apple’s 5G modem chip to be incorporated into iPhone 15 to be launched today.

There’s been so much hype around this in-house modem chip that DigiTimes reported early this year about ASE Technology and Amkor Technology competing to package the modem chips after they are manufactured at TSMC. Even the CEO of Qualcomm, the number one supplier of cellular modem chips, anticipated that Apple’s modem chips would be ready by 2024.

Qualcomm has stakes in this game. According to UBS analysts, 21% of its 2022 revenues come from supplying chips to Apple, which amounts to $7.6 billion. Qualcomm claims to have the best smartphone modem chips, which are crucial in 5G phones when it comes to cellular speed and power efficiency.

Figure 2 The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max feature a Snapdragon X65 modem chip. Source: Qualcomm

While having its own modem chips will save Apple a lot of money and give it more control over firmware, it seems to have proven more challenging than originally expected. A 5G modem chip must reliably connect to various networks without impacting the phone battery. It must also be certified by various wireless regulatory authorities.

So, while Apple’s work on a custom 5G modem will certainly carry on, it’s not yet ready for the crucial tasks in iPhone 15. In fact, some industry reports mirror Qualcomm chief Cristiano Amon’s view about Apple’s in-house modem chip. These reports suggest that Apple’s homegrown modem chip will be used in the iPhone SE 4, which will likely be released around March 2024.

If the iPhone SE 4 doesn’t support mmWave bands for 5G, it will lower the performance and energy efficiency bar on Apple’s homegrown modem chip. And the company will also be able to test its caliber for future iPhone launches.

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The post Surprise, Apple’s in-house 5G modem won’t be in iPhone 15 appeared first on EDN.

Surprise, Apple’s in-house 5G modem won’t be in iPhone 15

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