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Apple's 5G Modem Expected to Debut in iPhone SE 4, iPhone 17 Air, and Low-End iPads Next Year
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Did you own the iPhone 11 with the infamous Intel modems? I did. Apple not only cut corners to save themselves a buck, but did so using a known-inferior product with documented issues capturing and holding a signal.
Guess who's modem team + technology Apple bought to develop their own modem chips? Fool us once.
Apple's modem efforts may be fine. Time will tell. They've had years and years to try and get it right and I think it's actually a good sign that it's taken them so long. But I'm never going to blind-faith trust Apple to not act in their own best interest first and cut the corners they want to cut versus the ones I would cut.
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The point is not speed, any more so than GeekBench scores from an M4 MacBook Pro are the be-all/end-all of the M4's capabilities. It's about what available bandwidth allows in terms of concurrent connections, the ability for an individual tower to make full use of its backhaul connections. 5G also (can) offer significantly improved latency and range which makes it more suitable for full-time use or use as an alternative to a traditional wired connection. All of of which requires a modem that can properly take advantage of these improvements.
Probably, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t be better than Qualcomm. Keep in mind, when they introduced Apple Silicon they started with M1 for base Macs, and that still blew Intel out of the water.
And the latest rumor is that pro cellular models will have a different Apple-designed modem. I don’t think Apple would go ahead with this change if the end result was inferior to Qualcomm. That would do too much damage to their image.
They may even have 2 models of the phone, one with the Qualcomm modem and another with the Apple one. That way, if there is an issue, they can just cut production of the Apple variant. I'm pretty sure that's how they did it for the iPhone 8.
I strongly doubt that the iPhone SE is a low volume device. It is more likely this 1st gen modem is being deployed on devices where a reduced level of performance could be tolerated.
On the devices that sell in low volumes.
Besides, the main areas where these modems might not match Qualcomm on in special features like mmWave and overall top performance. Areas where non-top tier devices would not be expected to have top-tier performance anyway.
Back then, Apple had only 3 iPhone models on the market: 8/Plus and X.
This time, they have 5 models. Double that for the SIM vs. eSIM models.
Apple won't duplicate the models. And back in 2017, it was because the Intel baseband didn't support CDMA, not because of redundancy.
The SE is 5-6% based on historical data. The 17 Slim isn't going to sell much more either.
SE and new 17 Air next year. Probably iPhone 18 regular model. Keep improving for two years and put High performance version in iPhone 19 Pro Max. Easily a. 3-4 year roll out.
5G patent scene is a big mess. Everyone pays multiple players. Heck even Qualcomm pays license fee to others. What this will do is gives Apple a place on the negotiating table from position of strength. And this is more helpful for future when they invest in next standard 6G, 10 G or what ever they call. More patents and technology Apple has, it may cross license at good price for Qualcomm patents.
With the expected upcoming tariffs I think the new SE will do a lot better than in the past.
I think many people are underestimating the persuasive ability of Tim Cook and Apple's ability to lobby. He got exemptions last time for virtually all Apple products.
Apple does not extensively test anything any more. Just today I was working in Xcode and it refuses to spellcheck git commit messages. If Apple cannot get spell check (which has been around for what 30 years) to work what makes anyone think Apple is going to get something as complicated as an RF modem to work first time out of the box?
Remember last time they used Intel modems, all of the Qualcomm modems were dumbed down so they did not make the Intel modems look bad. Expect the same fake specs again.
Don’t bother telling the readers who Gurman’s sources are. Oh that’s right, he doesn’t actually have any. Sorry.
In case you don't realise everything I said there are wrong and are constantly repeated by MR comments.
I look forward to the day when Apple will be able to have their own fully in-house design and not need to pay Qualcomm a cent more, if it ever comes.
Trying it out with a low volume product may be the right way to go. But I would prefer not to buy the first gen versions of these immediately after launch. Hopefully there will not be an issues. I had huge battery drain issues with my 12 Pro Max when Apple introduced 5G on the iPhones for the first time.
You're conflating software bugs with hardware failures. If you think they're the same thing, I don't think we have much to discuss 🤷♂️
Mistakes happen, and will happen again.
But make no mistake that it's in APPLE'S best interest to make sure their new modem performs well.