Amid patent dispute, Qualcomm says it believes Apple intends to solely use modems from a competitor, likely Intel, for the next iPhone release
Apple appears to be making some big changes to the chips in its upcoming iPhones — and that could mean your next iPhone downloads data slower than rival Android devices.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the escalation point of a supply split that began when Intel won a contract to supply modems for some iPhones back in 2016, breaking Qualcomm's sole-source position. A year later, [[a:923623|the Wall Street Journal reported Apple was designing iPhones and iPads around Intel or possibly MediaTek chips instead of Qualcomm's]].
What changed now is the framing: Qualcomm itself — speaking mid-patent dispute — says it believes Apple will go all-Intel for the next iPhone, converting dual-sourcing into a full exclusion and tying the chip decision directly to the legal fight.
First-order effects
- Qualcomm loses its remaining modem socket in the flagship iPhone, leaving Intel as the sole cellular supplier for Apple's highest-volume product at the height of the two companies' patent dispute.
- Per the article's own framing, an all-Intel iPhone risks slower download speeds than rival Android devices, since Qualcomm's modems had been the performance benchmark inside Apple's lineup.
Second-order effects
- With design wins gone, Qualcomm's leverage shifts from selling chips to enforcing its patent-licensing business — the dispute becomes existential rather than a pricing negotiation.
- MediaTek, named in the earlier reporting as a candidate supplier, becomes the obvious second source if Apple wants leverage over Intel, and Intel gains the volume to justify continued mobile-modem investment.
Third-order effects
- The endgame visible in later coverage is in-house silicon: Apple went on to spend billions developing its own modem after finding early versions slow and prone to overheating, with a debut targeted for select models years later — the pattern being that any merchant supplier dependent on Apple is one design cycle from elimination.
- If the sequence holds — dual-source, then exclusive alternate, then internal chip — component suppliers serving Apple face structural pressure to diversify their customer base or accept commoditization.
The trend: Smartphone makers are using supplier disputes as the trigger to migrate from merchant chip vendors toward in-house silicon, with Apple's modem program as the template case.