Qualcomm announced that it has signed an agreement to extend the exclusive supply era for three years with an investment of $7.2 billion
Qualcomm was once the hegemon of the industry, and although MediaTek and Kirin have challenged it, Qualcomm as a whole is still a formidable technology company to be reckoned with. In light of this, it's hard to take your eyes off Qualcomm.
If you look closely, you can see that there was talk of Qualcomm abandoning chips a few years ago, but as time goes on, this voice has become less and less. The reason is that it is not easy to independently develop chips, and even several domestic mobile phone manufacturers no longer produce their own chips.
However, the abandonment of Qualcomm by domestic manufacturers does not mean that other companies will not do it. Apple is one such company that will offer the Qualcomm 5G baseband for iPhones from 2019.
A few years ago, Apple announced that it would develop its own 5G baseband chip to get rid of its dependence on Qualcomm. Apple also spent $1 billion (about Rs 7.2 billion) to acquire Intel's baseband chip business. There is speculation that Apple wants to get rid of Qualcomm because it doesn't want to pay Qualcomm a high license fee.
For whatever reason, Apple began to develop its own baseband. Due to the patent dispute between Qualcomm and Apple, people thought that Apple would speed up the development of its own products in a fit of rage to get rid of Qualcomm's shadow. However, what he didn't expect was that the iPhone 15 was delayed in going on the market, which caught him off guard.
Qualcomm made an official announcement some time ago.
According to Qualcomm's announcement, the company has reached an agreement with Apple to stipulate that the cooperation between the two companies in the field of 5G baseband will continue until 2027. This means that Qualcomm will continue to exclusive** 5G baseband for the next three years. Obviously, it is unlikely that Apple will launch its own baseband chip to the market within these three years. More than seven years have passed since Intel acquired Apple, and Apple has yet to launch any new products to the market.
As a result, many people wonder why Apple, which is so gifted in R&D, has not succeeded in developing a 5G baseband.
As the author says, in the case of Intel, Intel spent all the money. Not only because they have nothing to do, but also because during the acquisition process, most of their tech talent leaves. In fact, even though Intel's penetration does not prove easy, Intel is already known for its baseband technology, which is why Apple sold chips to Qualcomm.
What's more, Apple can't ignore the patents that Qualcomm once had. Apple has to leave Qualcomm behind, and Qualcomm's patents are what Apple has to do. Qualcomm has gained an absolute technological advantage, and Apple has a harder time getting around that hurdle. So it's not uncommon for them to find out now. But Apple has been developing its own ** chain. For example, why would they prefer to stand still and use Qualcomm's 5G baseband instead of diversifying (like Huawei's 5G baseband)?
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