An iPhone 17 Pro Max teardown confirms Apple sticking with Qualcomm’s modem for its flagship iPhones this year. The company did not specifically confirm using Qualcomm’s baseband on the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro models while unveiling them.
This is unlike the iPhone Air, which uses Apple’s second-gen C1X modem.
A new Qualcomm study suggests the company’s modems outperform Apple’s first in-house modem chip, the C1 — particularly in challenging urban network conditions.
The research from Cellular Insights, funded by Qualcomm, tested the iPhone 16e — Apple’s first device to feature the company’s homegrown C1 modem — against Android smartphones powered by Qualcomm chips on T-Mobile’s 5G network in New York City.
A MacBook capable of directly connecting to 5G cellular wireless networks is one potential result of the modem that Apple intends to introduce in 2025, according to a reliable source of insider information.
The 5G modem will supposedly go first into iOS handsets, including the extra-slim one dubbed the “iPhone 17 Air” that Apple is allegedly preparing to launch next year.
Qualcomm tried a new spoof of a legendary Apple ad campaign Sunday, coming in 14 years late and more than a few dollars short. The new ad for Arm-powered PCs stars “I’m a Mac” actor Justin Long pretending that notifications would drive him away from his MacBook.
The ad appeared at the end of Qualcomm’s “Snapdragon Computex 2024 Keynote: The PC Reborn.” You can see it and Long’s other work for Apple and competitors below.
Apple has extended its modem deal with Qualcomm for almost two years until March 2027. The three-year contract was supposed to expire in 2025.
Apple’s extension of its modem deal with Qualcomm comes as the Cupertino giant struggles to develop its in-house modem.
Apple is falling further behind in creating an in-house modem for iPhones. After multiple delays, the company targeted a 2025 spring timeline to ship its first modem. But that’s not going to happen.
A new report signals that Apple has delayed the modem’s launch until the end of 2025 or early 2026.
★★★★☆
Don’t want to spend hundreds on great-sounding earbuds? Affordable earbud and speaker maker EarFun unveiled its updated stemless earbuds Monday, EarFun Free Pro 3. They check a lot of quality boxes at a low regular price of $80, or $60 with current discounts (see below).
Like previous EarFun releases, the new buds nail high-quality sound and offer an array of premium features. But in this case, I found the active noise cancellation (ANC) unimpressive — that is, until EarFun sent out firmware update VO.2.1 in early November, and it improved noticeably.
Apple’s five-year effort to make a 5G modem for the iPhone has so far accomplished little besides spending billions of dollars, according to a new report. The reasons for the failure are myriad but mostly come down to executives underestimating the complexity of the project.
That’s left iPhone-maker dependent on Qualcomm for modems, a company Apple has a very rocky relationship with.
Apple has renewed its agreement with Qualcomm to use its 5G modems until 2026. The current deal would have expired at the end of 2023.
The three-year deal signals Apple’s in-house modem is still far from ready. Qualcomm itself was expecting Apple to switch to its modem in 2024.
Quaclomm CEO Cristiano Amon says he thinks Apple’s in-house modem could be ready in 2024, presumably for use inside the iPhone 16 series. The CEO’s comments came Monday during an interview on the show floor at MWC 2023, a massive tech trade show in Barcelona, Spain.
Qualcomm, the chipmaker that supplies the 5G modems in all iPhones, on Wednesday unveiled the X75, its next-generation modem that will be the first to support 5G Advanced. This emerging cellular-wireless standard will give a speed boost to cellular-wireless networks and make mobile VR/AR more practical.
The X75 probably will be used in the iPhone 16 when it launches in 2024.
Apple’s drawn-out effort to make its own 5G modem will reportedly begin to bear fruit in 2024. This will replace ones now sourced from Qualcomm.
And the iPhone-maker is also working to produce other wireless chips it currently gets from Broadcom.
Apple’s plans of using its in-house modem starting from the iPhone 15 in 2023 are unlikely to pan out. Qualcomm will continue to supply the Cupertino company with the “vast majority” of iPhone modems next year.
The San Diego chipmaker expects Apple to shift to its in-house modem by 2024 at the earliest. It had previously expected to supply the iPhone maker with only 20% of modem chips in 2023.
Apple is using a faster and more power-efficient Snapdragon X65 modem on the iPhone 14 Pro series. This allows the new iPhones to pull faster download speeds on 5G networks.
The new modem also reduces the latency time. Combined, these improvements will provide a better network connectivity experience on the iPhone 14 Pro.
Apple is reportedly unable to produce the 5G modem for the 2023 iPhone, as it had hoped. It will instead have the buy the critical component from Qualcomm, a company that Cupertino has quarreled with in the past.
Cupertino already sank more than a billion dollars into this so-far-unsuccessful effort.
When iPhone 14 launches this autumn, it’s expected to offer better 5G performance than its predecessors. The iPhone 13 already offers speedy connections, but a new modem in the 2022 version will bring advantages to the next iOS handset.
Chief among these is better connections in areas with weak 5G signal.
MediaTek looks set to become the first mobile chipmaker to finally give iPhone 13’s A15 Bionic chip a run for its money in processing performance.
The Taiwanese company’s new Dimensity 9000 chipset, announced late last year, is yet to make its way into an Android device. But early benchmarks suggest it will easily outpace rivals from Google, Samsung and Qualcomm.
Apple is reportedly hiring at a new office in Irvine, California, where the company will make 5G modems and other wireless chips for future devices.
It’s the latest move by Apple to expand the number of critical components for its products that it produces in-house.
Is it just your imagination, or are there billions of affordable earbuds boasting great sound quality on the market now? Well, maybe not billions, but many. And now Chinese audio brand Tronsmart adds its new Onyx Prime True Wireless Earbuds to the mix for $69.99.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit to block Nvidia from acquiring Arm. It believes the move would “distort Arm’s incentives in chip markets” and allow the combined firm to “unfairly undermine Nvidia’s rivals.”
Nvidia is already one of the largest chip companies in the world, while Arm’s technology is licensed to some of the biggest and most powerful brands, including Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Apple’s primary chip production partner, will start manufacturing custom 5G modem chips for iPhone in 2023, according to a new report, which cites four different sources familiar with the plan.
TSMC reportedly will build the chips using a 4-nanometer manufacturing process. The proprietary modems would allow Apple to reduce its reliability on rival chipmaker Qualcomm.
Apple is expected to start shipping its own 5G modems for iPhone in 2023. The chips will reduce the company’s reliance on Qualcomm — which is currently a major supplier of cellular chips for Apple devices.
Sources say the modems won’t be integrated into Apple’s primary A-series chipsets for iPhone, but will instead be separate components.
It’s great when a company releases a product that meets its expectations. It’s even better when it exceeds them. But that’s what you can expect when you buy a new Apple device with the latest A15 Bionic chip.
Independent tests confirm that the A15, which can be found inside iPhone 13 and the newest iPad mini, is even more impressive than Apple led us to believe, easily outpacing the newest mobile chips from the competition.
The iPhone 13 will offer two-way communication with low Earth orbit satellites, according to a report from a reliable Apple analyst. If the prediction proves correct, making phone calls and exchanging texts via satellite connection will be possible with Apple’s next handset.
Apple’s transition from using Qualcomm modems to its own 5G designs could roll out as soon as the next couple of years, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests, in a research note seen by Cult of Mac.