Apple’s iPhones could ship without parts from two of the company’s key suppliers by 2025, according to a new report.
WithApplekeen to verify that it only relies on itself as much as possible, the company is already working to remove Qualcomm modems from iPhones and has been for some years now. A new report byBloombergclaims that Broadcom is another company that Apple has in its sights.
According to that report Apple intends to drop Broadcom by 2025, replacing its component with one that is designed in-house. “The chipmaker makes a combined component that handles both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions on Apple devices,” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. Apple is also thought to be working to build those two functions into a single component that includes a cellular modem, too.
Right now cellular modems are provided by Qualcomm, but Apple had reportedly hoped to use its own chips as soon as this year’s iPhone 15. That now isn’t expected to happen. “Apple also aims to ready its first cellular modem chip by the end of 2024 or early 2025,” Gurman says. Qualcomm itself is expecting to lose Apple’s business sooner or later - Apple provides around 22% of the chipmaker’s annual sales but that’s now expected to drop in 2025.
Apple has been working to remove Qualcomm modems from its devices since it bought Intel’s modem business in 2019. That deal cost it a cool $1 billion but reports of ongoing design issues have popped upwith alarming regularity.
While the outlook for Qualcomm’s Apple business isn’t promising, Broadcom is likely to continue to work with the iPhone maker even if this report pans out, the Bloomberg report notes. “Broadcom still supplies Apple with other components — including radio-frequency chips and ones that handle wireless charging — though the iPhone maker has been working on customizing those parts as well.”
If Apple follows its previous release cadence we can expect it to ship its Qualcomm and Broadcomm-laden iPhone 15 series of devices in or around September.
