For well-known reasons, the iPhone has not had its own signal baseband, and the third-party baseband plug-in is used, plus design reasons, the signal of the iPhone has always been inferior to that of its friends, and Apple has spent a lot of money on the research and development of the signal baseband in the early years, but Qualcomm couldn't close his mouth with a smile! Because of the latest news, in a recent earnings conference**, Qualcomm said that Apple has decided to extend the modem chip license agreement with Qualcomm until March 2027, which is two years longer than the previous agreement. This means that in the next 3 years, **iPhone will continue to be equipped with Qualcomm's baseband technology, and Apple seems to be helpless against the plan to develop its own baseband.
At a time when there is a lot of speculation in the technology industry, people can't help but wonder that an Apple with huge resources is struggling in the field of baseband chips. Is it a technical bottleneck? Or are you stuck in Qualcomm's patent barriers?
Apple's self-developed baseband has been bumpy. The original goal was to launch a modem chip of its own design around 2024, but reality gave Apple a resounding slap in the face. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple's modem chip work has been postponed to late 2025 or 2026, and it was originally expected to launch its self-developed baseband chip in 2024, but it may be further delayed for now, and Qualcomm's baseband chip will continue to be used.
Apple has encountered a lot of difficulties in integrating Intel's technology, not only to rewrite **, but also to develop new features without infringing on Qualcomm's patents. It's like playing a high-stakes technical puzzle, and every time a new feature is added, it risks overwhelming the existing one.
In the blank period of Apple's self-developed baseband, Qualcomm's chip is still the heart of the iPhone. The iPhone 16 Pro, which will come out in 2024, is rumored to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon X75 modem. This chip not only provides better carrier aggregation capabilities, but also has a more energy-efficient design. It seems that before Apple's self-developed baseband debuts, Qualcomm will also be the "heartbeat guarantee" of the iPhone.
Here, we use a concise ** to compare the original plan of Apple's self-developed baseband with the actual situation:
Baseband chip: Responsible for signal processing and communication functions in mobile devices.
Modem: A device used to modulate and demodulate signals so that data can be transmitted over a communication network.
Carrier aggregation: An LTE technology that can combine the bandwidth of multiple frequency bands to increase the data transfer rate.
Patent infringement: The unauthorized use of another person's patented technology.
Energy-efficient design: refers to the design concept of considering energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption in the design process.