Sources: Intel has more than a thousand people working to outfit new iPhones with its 7360 LTE modem chip; Qualcomm currently provides all iPhone modems
Intel has 1,000 people working on chips for the iPhone — Intel now has a thousand people or more working to outfit a 2016 iPhone …
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2015 report is the opening move in a multi-year campaign to break Qualcomm's modem monopoly on the iPhone: Intel has committed more than 1,000 engineers to qualify its 7360 LTE modem for a future iPhone, while Qualcomm still supplies every cellular chip Apple ships.
The bet eventually pays off — sources report Intel wins a contract to supply modem chips for some iPhones in mid-2016, and by late 2017 KGI forecasts Intel taking 70%-80% of iPhone baseband share — though the same coverage later shows the program straining, with Intel missing 5G modem deadlines for the 2020 iPhones.
First-order effects
- Qualcomm's position as sole iPhone modem supplier is directly threatened: a second qualified vendor would end Apple's single-source dependency on its most strategic radio component.
- Intel is redirecting a thousand-plus engineers into smartphone silicon, a market segment it had largely conceded, making the 7360 a make-or-break internal program.
Second-order effects
- A dual-source structure shifts pricing leverage toward Apple, forcing Qualcomm to defend its high-margin modem business with competitive terms rather than incumbency.
- Rival baseband vendors and component suppliers gain a credible alternative customer path, since a validated Intel LTE modem lowers the qualification barrier for other handset makers weighing non-Qualcomm radios.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Apple's modem sourcing settles into permanent dual-sourcing — but the later coverage of Intel's 5G slips shows the structural risk: displacing an incumbent supplier takes years, and the challenger must keep pace across every generational transition.
- The episode becomes a template for how a dominant merchant silicon vendor can be unseated at a flagship customer through sheer engineering headcount and multi-year persistence.
The trend: Apple is systematically converting single-sourced critical components like iPhone modems into multi-vendor supply chains, with Intel's 1,000-engineer push as the opening data point.