Sources: Apple is designing iPhones and iPads that would exclude Qualcomm modem chips and include Intel or possibly MediaTek chips instead
Company considers building devices only with chips from Intel, possibly MediaTek — AAPL 2.25% Apple Inc., locked in an intensifying legal fight …
Context & Ripple Effects
This report extends what began in mid-2016, when Intel won a contract to supply modem chips for some iPhones and broke Qualcomm's exclusivity inside the iPhone. Now Apple is said to be designing devices that exclude Qualcomm modems entirely, with Intel as the lead supplier and MediaTek as a possible second source — a move landing squarely in the middle of the two companies' escalating patent litigation.
The arc that follows in related coverage validates the report's significance: within a year Qualcomm itself said it believed Apple would go solely with a competitor's modems (naming Intel as the likely beneficiary), and by 2020 Apple's hardware chief Johny Srouji confirmed work on an in-house cellular modem to replace Qualcomm chips altogether.
First-order effects
- Qualcomm faces the loss of modem sockets across both iPhones and iPads, converting its near-exclusive position into zero share in devices now being designed around Intel or MediaTek silicon.
- Intel becomes Apple's primary modem supplier with a far larger committed volume than its 2016 partial contract, while MediaTek stands to enter the iPhone supply chain for the first time.
Second-order effects
- The supply shift sharpens Qualcomm's legal posture: with chip revenue at stake, the patent dispute becomes an existential fight over whether royalties survive the loss of the component business.
- Concentrating on Intel creates single-source exposure that later coverage shows Apple came to fear — concerns about Intel as sole supplier for the planned 5G iPhone were cited as a trigger for the 2019 settlement with Qualcomm.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, dual-sourcing is a waypoint toward full vertical integration: Apple's in-house modem program, disclosed internally by Srouji in 2020, reportedly consumed billions of dollars yet produced a chip that was slow and prone to overheating — evidence of how hard the replacement path is even for Apple.
- The episode illustrates the durability of the design-in moat in cellular silicon: even the world's most valuable device maker, wielding dual suppliers and litigation leverage, could not quickly dislodge an incumbent modem vendor.
The trend: Apple is methodically working to strip Qualcomm out of its modem supply chain — first through Intel and MediaTek dual-sourcing, ultimately through in-house silicon — with litigation and supplier-risk dynamics setting the pace.