In a move to strengthen its mobile manufacturing ecosystem and reduce dependability on third parties, Apple has reportedly planned to ditch the 5G modem chips manufactured by a long-term ally Intel. The Cupertino-based company has intimated Intel about its plans and is now relying on building its custom radio chip that will integrate three connectivity protocols – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G – something that will pave the way for the smoother rollout of the next-generation mobile technology. However, interestingly, Apple was recently reported to be considering MediaTek as its chip supplier, after its relationship with Qualcomm turned sour.
According to a report by an Israeli tech website CTech, Apple was earlier in talks with Intel over the development of 5G-enabled radio chips, internally called ‘Sunnypeak’, for the 2020 iPhone models. While Intel was supposedly the primary supplier, Apple had a backup of its in-house chip-manufacturing pool. Now, the company is bringing its backup plan to the frontier while ditching Intel completely.
The report, citing sources familiar with the development, says that Intel has paused the production of 5G ‘Sunnypeak’ chips and asked the engineers to take up other projects. Intel was also considerably hoping that Apple will be the “main volume driver” for the chips. While nothing has been officially said by either company, the report quotes Intel executives saying that the Apple’s decision was driven by “many factors”. That said, the already manufactured ‘Sunnypeak’ chips will be remoulded into more advanced ones that will hopefully be integrated into the 2022 iPhone models.
Another report by DigiTimes suggests that Apple is banking on its relationship with MediaTek for the manufacturing of the modem chips for the next-generation iPhone models. While this fits perfectly in line with the earlier rumours that Apple would be planning to forgo Intel as its chip supplier for the 2020 Mac models, it does refute another report by Ming-Chi Kuo that said Apple would be placing big hopes on Intel for the development of chips on this year’s iPhone models, amid the ongoing dispute with Qualcomm.
While it’s not clear how far Apple wants to take its chip development, the company could be handing olive branches to either Qualcomm or Intel as early as 2020. The company is also foraying into the manufacturing of iPhone components and in-house modems that would allow it to bypass the limitations that crop up with third-parties and gain more control over the iPhone components.
