Qualcomm still wants to cooperate with Apple on a 5G iPhone

If Apple indeed having its reported trouble securing a 5G modem for 2020 iPhones from Intel or other vendors, Qualcomm is standing by, the chipmaker's president said on Friday.

"We're still in San Diego, they have our phone number," Qualcomm's President Cristiano Amon told Axios. "If they call, we'll support them."

The executive also said however that while he "can't really comment on what Apple is doing," the longer any company waits to launch a 5G device, the higher the bar will be, presumably referring to competing phones and tablets. Samsung's first compatible model, the S10 5G, is launching imminently.

The comments follow a report saying that Apple is still striving for a 5G modem from Intel, but that the XMM 8160 has missed multiple development deadlines. Apple has allegedly set a summer cutoff for sample chips, with a finished product due by early 2020 — around the time new iPhones would be finalizing.

Qualcomm already has 5G modems on offer, but Apple has been eschewing them in light of the global legal war between the two companies that began in 2017. Almost all iPhones now use Intel-made 4G modems, the only exceptions being older models skirting bans.

Apple is reportedly working on its own 5G chip under the aegis of senior VP of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji. The project is said to have between 1,200 and 2,000 engineers, some of them recruited from Intel and Qualcomm, but may nevertheless have to wait until 2021 to deliver a product.

56 Comments

rotateleftbyte 1630 comments · 12 Years

About 5 years ago

and the cost will be??????

Settlement of all outstanding cases in QC's favour.

Sagar 3 comments · 5 Years

I wonder why Intel is even bothering to make a 5G modem chip when their only customer Apple itself is building it.

rotateleftbyte said:

and the cost will be??????

Settlement of all outstanding cases in QC's favour.

And then Apple will file all those cases and some more against qualcomm later on, saying that qualvomm was the only viable 5G modem supplier, and it should be punished for being so good at R&D.

Mid Priss 5 comments · 8 Years

I was driving through Indianapolis the other day and my iPhone 10 XS hooked up to 5G. I ran Speedtest and topped out at 120 Mbps.

MplsP 4021 comments · 8 Years

Sagar said:

I wonder why Intel is even bothering to make a 5G modem chip when their only customer Apple itself is building it.

There may be other customers we don’t know about, or there may be collaboration agreements between the two we don’t know about.

rotateleftbyte said:

and the cost will be??????

Settlement of all outstanding cases in QC's favour.

QC: “oops - there’s a typo. There are supposed to be a couple more zeros after the price. Oh, and there’s a $1 ‘user fee’ every time it connects to the network.”