Apple and Qualcomm are in heated legal battles globally, the iPhone maker is looking to move away from its reliance on Qualcomm for iPhone modems and bring its business to Intel. In a new published report from Fast Company on Thursday evening, claims that Apple are “engaged with Intel counterparts” and are working on a 5G modem for a future iPhone.
If this report is accurate, Intel may takeover Qualcomm’s business with Apple. Apple has been using Qualcomm since 2011 and Intel could potentially dethrone Qualcomm by gaining major business from Apple. Sources familiar with the matter told Fast Company that the goal of this project is to build a modem into a system-on-a-chip with Apple’s A-series processor, GPU, and other iPhone components. All of this would be fabricated in an Intel facility.
On Thursday, Intel also declared that it has completed a 5G call over the 28Ghz band. The company is planning early prototypes of a new modem chip that it announced during the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show. Intel calls the test a “key milestone” when developing this new technology. Right now, Apple uses Intel’s modems for T-Mobile and AT&T network-compatible iPhones. Qualcomm on the other hand is supplying parts for phones designated for Verizon and Sprint customers.
With the legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm ramping up worldwide, reports have come out that Apple was considering building its flagship mobile devices without Qualcomm chipsets, instead would work with Intel and MediaTek to produce models for future iPhones.
