It is heavily rumoured that Apple is planning to add its own custom-made 5G modem chip in iPhones to reduce reliance on other companies. While we have seen this rumour for quite some time now, the plans have been postponed every time.
Now, according to reputed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will start using the home-made 5G modem chips starting from 2025 onwards.
The information comes from a research note from Kuo which discusses the potential business losses to Qualcomm as Huawei is on track to adopt the new self-developed Kirin processors starting in 2024.
Another business loss that Qualcomm has to face will come from Samsung. The Korean tech giant is expecting a bigger market share of Exynos 2400 in Samsung mobile phones as previously expected.
Qualcomm is the main loser from Huawei’s adoption of Kirin9000S and new Kirin chips / Qualcomm為華為採用Kirin9000S與新Kirin晶片的主要輸家https://t.co/wBmHn4AjRP
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) September 6, 2023
Apple 5G modem to debut in 2025
Talking about Apple, we have previously seen rumours of the iPhone SE being delayed to 2025 because Apple is unable to steer clear of the production challenges accompanied by designing the in-house 5G modem chip.
Apple has been working on developing its own 5G modems since 2018. However, the efforts have not bore any fruits as of now. The company even acquired Intel’s smartphone modem business in 2019 so that it does not have to start from scratch.
Despite these efforts, Apple’s plans to develop indigenous 5G modems have been unsuccessful so far. Due to this, Qualcomm is expected to remain Apple’s modem supplier for the iPhone 16 series throughout the next year.
Rumours indicate that the iPhone SE will be the first iPhone to arrive with an Apple-branded 5G modem chip. It will be followed by the release of iPhone 17 in 2025 with the same 5G modem.
Not only Apple-made chips would reduce the company’s reliance on Qualcomm, but it is also expected that the 5G modem chips will be more efficient and bring overall improvements to iPhones.
While Kuo is now expecting Apple 5G modems to debut in 2025, the plan is not entirely clear. In April this year, Kuo said he, ” believe (s) that the mass production schedule for Apple in-house 5G baseband chip will largely hinge on the test results of this engineering prototype…Consequently, mass production could commence as early as 2025. But if testing falls below expectations, the schedule may be pushed back to 2026 or later.”
We will have to wait for further developments on Apple’s 5G modem project to be sure that 2025 is indeed the year when we will get to see Apple’s own 5G modem in iPhone SE 4.