What You Should Know About Apple's 5G Modem

[steve09090]

Qualcomm only, thank you very much. You're talking about decades of experience manufacturing those radios. Not a chance I want Apple/Intel's half-baked tech. The last time they did it, the modems sucked in low-signal areas.

No idea where you got this idea. Apple used to be the leaders in radio tech. Basically everyone copied Apples Airport System. So yeah they have never been half baked in this area. But you do you.

 

[bLackjackj]

As an Analyst, I have no idea how wasting $1 Billion dollars was worth it for Apple. It will take decades upon decades to recoup this outlay - if it ever does. Money spent on wages and leases alone for 2000+ staff would be horendous.

Tim spends and wastes billions of Apples money again and again, like it's unlimited.

 

[surfzen21]

Hopefully these don't violate another patent and a judge forces Apple to disable the chip like the o2 sensors in the watches.

 

[LogicalApex]

How is it Qualcomm is not considered a monopoly?

The world is complex...

Qualcomm holds a lot of patents for their modems. Apple was locked in a long dispute with them over that reality and it didn't pan out for Apple. Patents are legally sanctioned monopolies that are designed to encourage innovation. The idea being if you invest enormous sums to invent something novel you should have time to monopolize the market for it and earn a return on that investment. After all, it is much easier to copy a proven design than it is to create that design from scratch.

Qualcomm could be targeted as a monopoly though if they took other actions outside of their patent sanctioned powers to stifle market competition.

 

[raghu8912]

Apple's first 5G modem chip would not support faster mmWave technology
How many service providers use this band ?
i think 5G is scam, coverage is spotty, it costs lot of money so service providers don't want to invest money in infrastructure.
I am sure 99.999% of people won't miss mmWave antenna/technology

 

[raghu8912]

If Apple really believe their modem offered superior performance (sensitivity and/or power consumption) they would not be debuting it on the lowest rung SE iPhone. It is obviously less expensive but its other capabilities (in the wild) is a big unknown. It makes the iPhone SE4 just a paid beta test vehicle. It might work GREAT but it might not.

designing new modem from ground up for Apple (new to modem technology) is huge task, they don't want to take the risk by using that in top selling phones.

 

[raghu8912]

Qualcomm only, thank you very much. You're talking about decades of experience manufacturing those radios. Not a chance I want Apple/Intel's half-baked tech. The last time they did it, the modems sucked in low-signal areas.

i didn't have any issues, may be it depends on where you live, who the service provider is and what band they are using.

 

[steve09090]

As an Analyst, I have no idea how wasting $1 Billion dollars was worth it for Apple. It will take decades upon decades to recoup this outlay - if it ever does. Money spent on wages and leases alone for 2000+ staff would be horendous.

Tim spends and wastes billions of Apples money again and again, like it's unlimited.

Yet they have $Billions in reserve and always in the top 5 value companies in the planet. Maybe you could apply to Apple for a job to put them on the right path 😂

 

[hoodafoo]

Qualcomm would be considered a monopoly if it were using its pre-eminiant position in unfairly restricting free trade and commerce.

just being the best or better than all the rest, by itself, is not the definition of a monopoly.
as long as apple and qualcomm can (as they have) agree on a price for apple to buy qualcomm's modems. then even the impressive patent base that qualcomm has would still not qualify it as a monopoly.

now that apple ia about to make modems for its own products, it proves in the legal sense that qualcomm is not a monopoly.

if apple were ever to sell its modems to 3rd parties, and qualcomm tried to undercut apple's prices, then qualcomm might/would probably be accused of unfairly restricting competition.

my understanding is that they have patents for the most basic functions of a modem, thus no other company can build their own without stepping on some toes. It's like they have the patent for a tire and everyone else is welcomed to design their own cars so long as it has no tires on it

 

[cdsapplefan]

I would advise anyone who wants to avoid any potential hiccups of Apple’s new 5g modem to invest in a standard iPhone 16 model. That way you will avoid all the software or maybe hardware hiccups of the new modem and you will have a solid tried and tested Qualcomm modem for 4-5 years.

 

[GoodLife556]

real question is where the lossless audio engine they been working on along with this 5G modem... that will change the game along with this 5G modem

 

[vegetassj4]

What to expect?

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today introduced the new Apple 5G Modem, supercharged by the iModem Pro chip and Apple Intelligence, the all in one communications package will deliver groundbreaking communications intelligence that is helpful and relevant while protecting user privacy. With a beloved ultrafast design, the Apple 5G modem will be available in four gorgeous finishes, including blue and purple, and features a brilliant laser etched logo. iModem Pro delivers a huge performance boost for even the most demanding tasks, with faster WiFi and 5G than ever before, and support for Apple Intelligence. The versatility and advanced capabilities of the new Apple 5G modem are taken to a whole new level with support for Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Vision Pro, opening up entirely new ways to be even more productive and creative. The Apple 5G modem is years ahead of any other modem, we think you are going to love it.

 

[Chuckeee]

I would advise anyone who wants to avoid any potential hiccups of Apple’s new 5g modem to invest in a standard iPhone 16 model. That way you will avoid all the software or maybe hardware hiccups of the new modem and you will have a solid tried and tested Qualcomm modem for 4-5 years.

With the exception of the iPhone 17 Air/slim, the rumor mill has been extremely quiet on the Apple modem with respect to the other iPhone 17 models. I would guess it might be highly dependent on success or issues realized with the v1.0.0 of the Apple modem in the iPhone SE4

 

[t0rqx]

All I know i dont want this component in my next iPhone if it has not proven its quality.

 

[BGPL]

This modem business is just like that wireless charging mat that was in the news for several years and flopped around on the floor for a while before it finally died.

 

[t0rqx]

It must be incredibly difficult to design any kind of modem chip that doesn't in some way infringe on a Qualcomm patent. Can Apple do it...maybe?? It just hard to move away from the sure thing in mobile modem chips to an unknown Apple modem chip.

All they have to do is pull another Masimo. They dont it before. Same with multi-touch. Do you really think Apple designed that?

 

[arc of the universe]

my understanding is that they have patents for the most basic functions of a modem, thus no other company can build their own without stepping on some toes. It's like they have the patent for a tire and everyone else is welcomed to design their own cars so long as it has no tires on it

correct.
but, when this situation occurs, and would cause other companies to not be able to make or sell products, then that company that owns those patents is required by law to make available for sale that product to other companies at a fair and resonable price.
thus, in my post i mentioned that because of the fact that apple and qualcomm were in fact able to make a deal for apple to buy modems, the government couldn't prosecute qualcomm as a monopoly.
if however, apple and qualcomm could not agree on a price for apple to purchase at, then a lawsuit accusing qualcomm of being a monopoly would have occurred.

in this case, apple was between a rock and a hard place.
to use your analogy, it really needed those tires. and couldn't take the risk of a long protracted lawsuit since apple does need those modems. so it agreed to a price with qualcomm.

apple didn't go that route with massimo for blood oxygen device related patents. they decided to fight it out in court, and lost big time.
according to massimo, apple never even once contacted massimo. therefore massimo would never be called a monoplpoy since apple never even tried to negotiate a price to use their patents.

 

[DonutHands]

Royalty free 5G modems that cost pennies to manufacture. Finally gonna get us some cellular connectivity built into laptops?

 

[bebarhood]

I am holding off upgrading my 13 PM until probably the 17 PM. PLEASE do nit include this chip in that phone.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

5G Modem isn't the big deal. It's 6G and Apple is a full member of the Next G Alliance, right along with all the industry heavy weights.

You can bet the investment on 6G is in parallel with bringing up 5G.

Full Members – Next G Alliance

nextgalliance.org

 

[entropys]

Apple would be aiming to eventually incorporate the modem into the SOC would they not?

anyway, I would buy a phone with a first gen Apple 5G modem if it put the modem in an A18 iPhone mini.

 

[timber]

Reading the article it's easy to agree and understand all of Apple's reasoning.
And, of course, as before with intel.
But you can't unsee those SE4 customers as lab rats or guinea pigs.

 

[foobarbaz]

With this in mind, any new iPhone with this new technology would be a hard pass for me. Why should a customer paying hundreds of dollars for a device have to be the guinea pig for Apple?

You could say the same thing about every single new feature Apple adds. Generally, we assume that before Apple ships something it's thoroughly tested and delayed until its ready. What's so different about this than, say, Face ID?

You should never buy anything before seeing reviews, but I give this the same chances as every other change.

Here's a novel thought Apple, hand out the iPhones with your new modems to a small batch of loyal customers around the world for free to test. Being a trillion dollar company, I think this would be doable.

Why would you start testing after having a mass produced device ready to hand out? That's way too late to fix anything without starting from scratch. The only right way is to have been field-testing all along for many years. I can guarantee you there's people with modified iPhones walking the world right now if they actually want to ship this next year.

 

[AndiG]

Developing an own modem just for Apples use doesn’t make much sense - or it just makes sense as long as the sales numers continue on the same level. Btw 6G is imminent - and implies a huge amount of development cost.

Will Apple 5G modem will make it to the Macs, finally?

 

[Karllake]

Royalty free 5G modems that cost pennies to manufacture. Finally gonna get us some cellular connectivity built into laptops?

This! I think this is the long-term move, my 3yo daughter tried to use my DSLR display like a touch screen, the next generation won't accept that iPads can have cellular but Laptops can't. Next, if your laptop and phone have cellular, do you need Cable/Wifi or could units such as ATVs have their own cellular plans and create a P2P mesh for everything else.

ship everything with a combined connectivity chip and allow eSims on all.

Also, add to this the U1/2 chip with a constant low power supply so everything has 'find my' by default.