Apple continues to spend billions to develop its own 5G modem, but experts don’t think it’s a good idea

Apple is committed to being completely independent of third-party components and intends to continue investing billions of dollars and millions of work hours in developing its own cellular modems, even though experts say this is unlikely to lead to significant improvements in its devices.

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Currently, Apple devices use modems supplied by Qualcomm. Apple seeks to end this cooperation in 2018, starting the development of its own chips. However, as PhoneArena writes, citing journalist Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, “Apple’s cellular modem is unlikely to improve any of the company’s devices.” During the six years spent developing the modem, it was not possible to create a working version due to frequent problems with performance and overheating. Let us remind you that a cellular modem is a component of a smartphone that provides access to the mobile Internet via 3G, 4G or 5G networks (6G has already appeared in the USA and other countries).

«Qualcomm’s modems are great and flawless, and most competitors, including Intel, can’t match them,” says Gurman. In his opinion, one of the reasons why Apple wants to have its own modems lies in the ability to position its devices as products equipped with its own components.

Another reason could presumably be Apple’s plan to develop a unified chip that would handle all wireless functions, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s simply because Apple thinks it’s paying Qualcomm too much,” Gurman said. He also noted that the main reason why Apple is so actively developing its own modem is so as not to depend on Qualcomm in the future. However, this is unlikely to succeed, Gurman emphasizes, since Qualcomm owns too many patents.