Today, Qualcomm has announced that Apple has signed an agreement that will make Qualcomm the supplier of chips for iPhones until 2026. It means that the iPhone 15, iPhone 16, and iPhone 17 will arrive with Qualcomm’s 5G modems instead of Apple’s own in-house 5G modem, which has hit a development snag.
Previously, Qualcomm said that it is expecting to remain Apple’s 5G modem chip supplier until 2024 as it is ramrod that Apple is working on developing an in-house 5G modem to reduce dependency on other companies.
Qualcomm has said that it is expecting to supply only 20% of 5G modems for Apple’s 2026 smartphone. This indicates that we might see Apple’s in-house 5G modem in the iPhone 17 or iPhone 18 series.
“Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Apple Inc. to supply Snapdragon® 5G Modem‑RF Systems for smartphone launches in 2024, 2025, and 2026. This agreement reinforces Qualcomm’s track record of sustained leadership across 5G technologies and products,” reads Qualcomm’s statement.
Qualcomm generates a massive portion of its revenue from the sale of chips to Apple. According to UBS estimate, the chipmaking company has recorded 21% of fiscal 2022 revenue of $44.2 billion from Apple.
Just four days ago, reputed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple will start using home-made 5G modem chips starting from 2025 onwards.
Apple has been working on working on developing its proprietary 5G modems since 2018. However, the efforts have not shown any results so far. The company even acquired Intel’s smartphone modem business for around $1 billion in 2019 so that it does not have to start from scratch.
Despite these efforts, Apple’s plans to develop in-house 5G modems have been unsuccessful so far.
It is believed that the iPhone SE 4 will be the first iPhone to feature Apple’s own 5G modem. But with the latest announcement of an agreement with Apple by Qualcomm, it is quite likely that we might see another device with an in-house modem before the iPhone SE 4.
Apple could launch an iPad with its own 5G modem to test its efficiency before including it in iPhones.
This announcement is a sign of relief for Qualcomm which is expecting to lose its business from Samsung and Huawei. In a research note, Kuo mentioned recently that Huawei is on track to adopt the new self-developed Kirin processors starting in 2024, which would mean no Qualcomm chips for Huawei smartphones.
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.