Apple is preparing to bring one of its most ambitious projects to market, unveiling a series of mobile modem chips that will replace components from longtime partner and rival Qualcomm.
Half a decade of research and billions of dollars in investment
After more than half a decade of development, Apple’s in-house modem system will debut next spring. The technology is expected to be part of the iPhone SE, the company’s entry-level smartphone, which will get its first update since 2022 next year.
Apple is planning to escape Qualcomm's shadow in the field of manufacturing modems for mobile phones.
Modems are a key part of any mobile phone, allowing the device to connect to cell towers to make calls and connect to the internet. The first version of this component will be followed by increasingly advanced generations of Apple. Sources close to the matter say Apple aims to surpass Qualcomm's technology by 2027.
Apple’s modem has been a long time in the making. When the company first started building the chip, it initially hoped to bring it to market as early as 2021. To accelerate the effort, Apple has invested billions of dollars in building labs and engineering labs around the world. Apple also spent about $1 billion (US) to buy Intel Corp.’s modem team and hired millions of engineers from other silicon companies.
Apple has had a number of setbacks over the years. Early prototypes were too big, ran too hot, and weren’t power efficient enough. There were also concerns that Apple was simply developing a modem to get back at Qualcomm, following a legal battle over the iPhone maker’s undeserved licensing payments.
But after tweaking its development operations, reorganizing its management team, and hiring a slew of new engineers from Qualcomm itself, Apple is confident that its modem plans will succeed. This would be a big win for the company’s hardware technology group, led by Senior Vice President Johny Srouji.
When the iPhone SE launches in a few months, it will have major new features, including Apple’s AI and the edge-to-edge screen design that’s been used in its higher-end models. But its most impressive breakthrough won’t be visible to consumers: its in-house modem, codenamed Sinope.
For now, the modem won’t be used in Apple’s higher-end products. It will appear in a new mid-range iPhone later next year, codenamed D23, that will be much thinner than current models. The chip will also start appearing in Apple’s low-cost iPads as early as 2025.
Secret testing with carriers
To prepare for the iPhone SE, Cupertino, California-based Apple secretly tested the new modem on hundreds of devices deployed to employees around the world. And it conducted quality assurance testing with carrier partners around the world.
Apple has spent billions of dollars over the past half century researching and manufacturing its own modems.
The company decided to start with low-cost products in part because modems are a risky endeavor: If they don’t work properly, customers will experience dropped calls and missed notifications. There’s little tolerance for that on Apple’s top-end, $1,000-plus iPhones. What’s more, Sinope isn’t as advanced as the latest modems from San Diego-based Qualcomm, meaning Apple’s first modem is a downgrade from the component that’s in the iPhone 16 Pro.
Unlike today’s high-end Qualcomm components, the Sinope modem won’t support mmWave, a type of 5G technology used by Verizon Wireless and other carriers, primarily in major cities, that can theoretically handle download speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. Instead, Apple’s component will rely on the Sub-6 standard, a more common technology used by the current iPhone SE.
The first Apple modem will also only support quad carrier aggregation, a technology that combines bands from multiple wireless carriers at once to increase network capacity and speed. Qualcomm's modem can support six or more carriers at once.
In lab tests, the first Apple modem maxed out at around 4 gigabits per second download speeds, lower than the top speeds offered by Qualcomm’s non-mmWave modems, the people said. Real-world speeds for both types of modems are typically much lower, meaning customers may not notice a difference in day-to-day use.
In any case, the first Apple modem will have a number of other advantages that the company believes will benefit consumers. For one, it will be tightly integrated with the main processor, designed by Apple to use less power, scan for cellular service more efficiently, and better support on-device features for connecting to satellite networks.
Every year a new generation of modems is introduced.
To help build its modems, Apple has rapidly expanded its office space in San Diego and other parts of Southern California, seeking to attract talent from Qualcomm. Executives involved in modem development believe that some of the resources and talent it acquired from Intel in 2019 were not enough, and that hiring from Qualcomm has helped Apple overcome its previous setbacks.
Starting in 2025, Apple will introduce new versions of the modem.
Some modem development work also takes place in Cupertino and its Munich offices. The modem will work with another new Apple component: a radio frequency front-end, or RFFE, system called Carpo, which helps devices connect to cellular networks.
That division would also take away business from Qualcomm and could eventually hurt Qorvo. Today, Apple uses Skyworks Solutions Inc. and Broadcom Inc. for RF filters—and the relationship will continue. Apple and Broadcom have renewed their supply agreement through 2023.
In 2026, Apple hopes to get closer to Qualcomm’s capabilities with a second-generation modem that will start appearing in higher-end products. The chip, called Ganymede, is expected to be included in the iPhone 18 series, as well as high-end iPads in 2027. The big difference is that Ganymede will catch up to Qualcomm’s current modems by adding support for mmWave, which can reach 6 gigabits per second.
Apple is aiming to launch a third modem codenamed Prometheus in 2027. The company hopes to surpass Qualcomm in performance and artificial intelligence features of that component by then. It will also integrate support for next-generation satellite networks.
Qualcomm has long been preparing for Apple to stop using its modems, but the company still gets more than 20% of its revenue from the iPhone maker, according to Bloomberg. Qualcomm shares fell as much as 2% to their session lows after Bloomberg reported Apple’s plans on Friday. Meanwhile, shares of Qorvo Inc., another component supplier at risk of being displaced by Apple’s modem efforts, fell as much as 6% before recovering.
Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/apple-cong-bo-du-an-day-tham-vong-canh-tranh-qualcomm-192241207164923181.htm
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