Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest chip fab and a manufacturer of Apple's A9 chips used in iPhone 6s models, has posted earnings that beat analysts estimates for the quarter and established the company's highest annual earnings in 29 years.
News somehow managed to keep up the pace right before the Christmas break, with major seat changes at Apple and hints at future products, including new iPads and the so-called iPhone 7.
Apple is now operating a top secret production laboratory in Longtan, Taiwan, formerly run by Qualcomm to develop a unique, low-power display technology known as IMOD, or Interferometric Modulator Display.
Apple spent just 3.5 percent — $8.1 billion — of its 2015 revenues on research and development, proportionately far less than peers like Google and Facebook in the American tech landscape.
Qualcomm is still the only official modem supplier for new iPhones shipping next month, although Intel could start taking up orders in 2017, a report said on Tuesday.
Apple will reportedly turn to Intel's new XMM 7360 LTE modem when it launches a special next-generation iPhone model in 2016, suggesting the company is looking to diversify baseband chip suppliers.
A number of mobile executives who attended this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona are already projecting that the Apple Watch will dominate the smartwatch market when it launches in April, much as the iPad currently controls the tablet industry.
Chipmaker Qualcomm on Wednesday revised its revenue forecast downward for 2015, lopping nearly $1 billion off of its high-end estimate and seemingly blaming the change in part on Apple's annexation of market share with the iPhone 6.
A new report claims that Samsung has decided against using Qualcomm's 64-bit Snapdragon 810 Application Processor in its next flagship smartphone due to overheating issues, and will instead be forced use its own internally developed (and significantly slower) Exynos chip instead.
While rumors have long claimed that Apple has plans to replace Intel's x86 chips in Macs with its own custom ARM Application Processors, there are a series of more valuable opportunities available to Apple's internal silicon design team, each of which has the potential to replicate Apple's history of beating Intel in mobile chips.
Qualcomm's upcoming 64-bit Snapdragon chips designed to power new high end Android flagship phones including the Samsung Galaxy S6, LG G4 and HTC One M9 are reportedly running into new issues that threaten to further delay any real competition to Apple's iPhone 6 juggernaut.
Apple's A-series Application Processors that power iPads—including the latest and greatest A8X in iPad Air 2—are inciting billion dollar losses for Intel and threatening major problems for rival tablet chips from Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia, along with all the companies that depend upon those vendors for their mobile chips.
Bloggers who invent and inflate "controversies" and "scandals" for Apple are increasingly achieving the opposite of what they are setting out to do.
The latest component claimed to be from Apple's next-generation iPhone is a Qualcomm MDM9625 modem, which would boost cellular download speeds to 150 megabits per second, which would be 50 percent faster than the modem found in the iPhone 5s.
While Intel Mobile Communications hasn't supplied baseband processors to Apple in years, the chipmaker is said to be looking to get back into the supply chain for future iPhone models in an effort to oust current partner Qualcomm.
With recent rumors and hires suggesting Apple may be planning to build its own custom baseband chips for future iPhones, moving away from off-the-shelf silicon from companies like Qualcomm, one analyst thinks it's a highly unlikely route for Apple to take given the time it would have to invest.
Though it has yet to be announced and there are no signs of an impending product launch, Apple's so-called "iWatch" is reportedly facing poor yield rates of less than 50 percent in trial manufacturing, if the latest rumors are to be believed.
Apple supplier Qualcomm has backed away from statements made by a senior executive that the 64-bit capabilities of the iPhone 5s' A7 processor are a "marketing gimmick."
A senior vice president for Apple supplier Qualcomm says the 64-bit A7 chip in Apple's iPhone 5s is more a marketing gimmick than a development that will lead to real consumer benefits, but at the same time appeared to hint that the chip maker is planning a future 64-bit processor of its own.
Apple supplier Qualcomm on Thursday announced a new "global LTE" front end solution that operates on 40 bands, including all existing LTE networks, which could usher in a truly global iPhone that even supports the obscure TD-SCDMA network used by the world's largest carrier China Mobile.
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Daniel Eran Dilger
Roger Fingas
AppleInsider Staff
Sam Oliver
Neil Hughes
Kevin Bostic
