Sources: Apple plans to release Watch with cellular connectivity this year, with LTE modems supplied by Intel
Intel is said to supply modem that works with cell networks — Apple plans to begin selling new smartwatch by end of year — Apple Inc. is planning to release a version …
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes a loop opened more than a year earlier: Apple had been working on cell-network connectivity for the Watch since at least April 2016, then delayed the feature over battery life concerns and shipped GPS-only models instead. The 2017 plan revives that effort with Intel supplying the LTE modem.
The Intel win also fits a broader arc in the coverage — by late 2018, Intel was reportedly positioned as the sole modem supplier for that year's iPhones, so the Watch deal reads as the first step in a deepening Apple-Intel modem relationship.
First-order effects
- Apple can sell a Watch that works independently of an iPhone, removing the biggest functional limitation cited when the feature was shelved in 2016.
- Intel lands a marquee design win in Apple's wearable lineup, extending its modem business beyond iPhones into a second Apple product category.
Second-order effects
- A successful cellular Watch strengthens Intel's position to become Apple's dominant — potentially sole — modem supplier across product lines, as later reporting on the 2020 iPhone suggested.
- Cellular capability sets up the connectivity improvements Bloomberg reported for the 2021 Watch generation, making network performance a recurring selling point rather than a one-off feature.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, wearables shift from phone accessories to standalone connected devices, with modem suppliers like Intel gaining leverage inside Apple's hardware roadmap — and Apple carrying the corresponding single-supplier concentration risk.
The trend: Apple is progressively cutting its devices' dependence on the iPhone by adding cellular connectivity, with Intel riding that shift from Watch modems toward a near-monopoly on Apple's radio silicon.