Qualcomm

The first generation of Apple Silicon chips took other chip makers by surprise. While everyone knew it would be good, the M1 chip was so far ahead of its competitors in both power and efficiency that there must have been a lot of worried faces in Intel and Qualcomm’s respective boardrooms.

Three generations later, Qualcomm appears to have finally caught up with Apple’s M4 chip with its new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip, intended for laptops. However, that situation may not last for long …

As Apple continues its years-long breakup with Qualcomm, the chipmaker’s CEO says he is already looking beyond the iPhone, as he tries to reassure investors that the company’s long-term plans don’t depend on Cupertino’s roadmap.

Apple launched C1, its first in-house 5G modem, earlier this year with the iPhone 16e and early findings suggested it performed well against Qualcomm’s own modems. Now a new study says otherwise—but with the huge asterisk that it was paid for by Qualcomm.

Apple spent many years developing the technology behind its new C1 modem. But before the iPhone 16e’s launch, expectations were that Apple’s C1 would trail Qualcomm’s own 5G modem—at least in this first version. A just-published study of real-world findings, however, tells a different story.

When we look back on the iPhone 16e years from now, the thing we’ll all remember is that it was the first iPhone to use Apple’s own modem.

Even though the two companies have a testy relationship, Apple has historically relied on Qualcomm for modems. The C1 chip in the iPhone 16e is Apple’s first step toward breaking up with Qualcomm.

Qualcomm, however, says it’s not worried about the competition posed by Apple’s foray into modems…

After years of development, Apple has unveiled what it calls C1, its first-ever in-house cellular modem. Apple’s latest silicon replaces Qualcomm modem chips previously required for 5G connectivity in the iPhone.

In a surprising move, chipmaker Qualcomm has been considering a full takeover of Intel, known for its computer processors. A report in The Wall Street Journal on Friday revealed that although a deal is “far from certain,” the two companies have held talks on the subject.

The project to replace Qualcomm’s radio chip with an Apple modem is taking a huge amount of time and effort, and some have questioned whether that investment makes sense just to save a few dollars on the cost of an iPhone.

The question becomes even more pointed when even company insiders admit there will be no benefit to customers when the switch first happens – but Apple is hoping the move will pay off for customers too, in the longer-term …

The Apple versus Qualcomm battle was fought fiercely for years, before circumstances forced the iPhone maker to agree a last-minute settlement.

But some Qualcomm shareholders were as unhappy as Apple about the chipmaker’s business practices, and they’ve finally managed to persuade the company to pay compensation …

It’s now 15 years since the last of Apple’s award-winning “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads, but rival companies still believe it’s clever to use the Mac actor to try to sell rival products.

After Huawei and Intel, Qualcomm is the latest company to make the attempt, with an incredibly cringeworthy ad in which the Mac guy – played by Justin Long – decides it’s time to get a PC …

Apple announced last year that it would extend its agreement with Qualcomm to continue using the company’s 5G modems until 2026. However, as Apple’s plans to build its own modems have been thwarted, it will continue to use Qualcomm’s modems in the iPhone until 2027 at least.

A sketchy report claims that plans to design an in-house Apple 5G modem chip have been abandoned, after the company struggled to make progress with the project.

It follows a series of reports describing the challenges faced by the company, including one which suggested that the project was proving a “spectacular failure” …

Apple has been doing a great job with its Apple Silicon “M” chips for computers, as they deliver more performance without consuming too much power. On the other side, Qualcomm and Microsoft have been trying to develop a competitor to the Apple Silicon Macs. While the first attempts were unsuccessful, it seems that Qualcomm’s latest CPU has finally beaten Apple’s M1 and is catching up with M2 in terms of performance.

Attempts to design an Apple modem chip to replace the Qualcomm radio chips used in iPhones have been ongoing since at least 2018 – but some five years later have been deemed a failure by engineers who worked on the project.

Even by last year, the chip Apple managed to produce was found to be slower than Qualcomm ones, prone to overheating, and so large it would have occupied more than half the space inside an iPhone …

Qualcomm is harassing Apple execs by calling them as witnesses in an unrelated lawsuit, according to lawyers for the Cupertino company.

Apple has asked for subpoenas to be withdrawn, accusing the chipmaker of simply seeking revenge for past disputes between the two companies …

While Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that the iPhone SE 4 will be the first iPhone with Apple’s own in-house modem, it’s unclear when the company’s flagship devices will make the switch. Currently, Apple relies on Qualcomm for the 5G modems it uses in its devices.

Apple has been reportedly developing a so-called iPhone SE fourth-gen, but a new report affirms that no such product will ship. iPhone SE 4 was said to resemble the iPhone XR and iPhone 11 physical design, but include 5G connectivity and other modern specs. Being canceled rather than delayed is said to predominantly benefit Qualcomm.

Apple has been developing its own modem chips for iPhone, and some reports suggested that the company would start using them as soon as 2023. However, a statement from Qualcomm suggests that Apple will keep using third-party modems rather than its own chips for the 2023 iPhone models.

See the update at the bottom of the piece.

The iPhone 15 was expected to be the first lineup to use an in-house Apple 5G chip instead of the Qualcomm ones used in current models. A recent report suggested that this won’t be the case because Apple has hit problems with the design, but a new analysis suggests that this is only half-right.

Which is to say, there is a problem with the Cupertino company’s attempt to dump Qualcomm in favor of an Apple modem chip, but it’s a legal one, not a technical one …

Chipmaker Qualcomm bribed Apple to the tune of billions of dollars, according to a European Union antitrust finding back in 2018. But a European court has now ruled that the case was not proven, and has overturned the billion-dollar fine imposed at the time.

The fact that Qualcomm paid billions of dollars to Apple is not in dispute; the issue is whether these payments influenced the iPhone maker’s choice of chip company …

Qualcomm will beat M2 chips in the laptop and desktop PC sector, claims the company’s CEO, thanks to expertise from three former Apple Silicon engineers.

It’s a claim we’ve heard before, of course, from both Qualcomm and Intel in relation to the M1 chip …