Intel outside? Apple ditching Chipzilla for custom 5G modems in the 2020 iPhones

If you want to know whether you have an Intel XMM7480 modem in your iPhone X (A1901 models), or the more capable Qualcomm gear (the A1865 model), you can easily do this, but, starting 2020, there might only be Apple modems inside iPhones.

Speculation? Well, insiders have seen internal Intel communication, and claim that Apple has sent Chipzilla a memo that it will no longer need its future 5G wireless modem designs, starting with the 2020 iPhone crop. After a fallout with Qualcomm over patents and royalties, Apple is moving entirely to Intel modem chips inside the 2018 iPhones, but Intel won't seemingly be the exclusive supplier for more than two years in a row.

After Apple's letter that it will no longer need its services, Intel has reportedly halted research in this area, and might disband the whole 5G modem undertaking, as Apple was its largest and perhaps sole customer. What will the team from Cupertino replace both Qualcomm and Intel with? Why, either a third-party provider like Huawei or MediaTek (unlikely, given the current US trade spat with China), or wireless modems of its own, perhaps. It's not an easy feat to pull off, but if someone has the resources and wherewithal to test and implement multiband LTE modems for the upcoming 5G revolution from scratch, it's Apple, and we are more than curious to see what connectivity options will arrive in the 2020 iPhones. 

According to the internal Intel communication, the decision to ditch its modems is a result of various factors, as Apple is pushing "a massive effort" to introduce 5G in its phones and tablets, but combining it with the upcoming WiGig (802.11ad) standard "into any mobile product brings new and unanticipated challenges," they say, so Apple might be gunning for a more hands-on approach to its 5G connectivity chip conundrum going forward.

source: CTech