In what could turn out to be a major development in the smartphones business worldwide, Apple’s iPhones may no longer sport Qualcomm modems and instead switch to rival Intel’s. “Apple intends to solely use our competitor’s modems rather than our modems in its next iPhone release,” said Qualcomm Chief Financial Officer George Davis.
Though this news may not surprise many, particularly in the US since the two companies have been fighting legal battles there for some time now, it does raise a few questions about the strategy to be adopted by Apple going ahead. iPhones and other devices made by Apple command a premium in the market since they are supposed to be built on better technological platforms and Apple’s refusal to compromise on quality of the components it uses. How good will Intel’s replacement modem measure up to Apple’s benchmarks and can it better Qualcomm’s processors like the Snapdragon 845 SoC are factors that would be closely watched by industry observers in the weeks to come.
The two companies have accused each other of short charging; Apple claiming Qualcomm has overcharged it for the LTE modems, while Qualcomm claims Apple has underpaid royalties to it. Qualcomm has also accused Apple of certain infringements of its patents and that Apple has shared some technical details with Intel. But its efforts to have the sale of a few iPhone models banned in the US have failed in the courts.
Some experts feel Apple may make a compromise proposal and stick with Qualcomm. The reasoning for this is that Qualcomm is ready with its 5G modems, while Intel has publicly announced that it may not be able to release its 5G compatible products before 2019. In such a scenario, if Apple dumps Qualcomm and goes with Intel, it will completely miss the bus on the 5G space. That is of course, if the relationship between them is still in the mendable stage. Some people point out that if Apple is not happy with Intel, it may seek out a third alternative like MediaTek; but all these are in the realm of speculation right now.