Kuo: Apple is looking to offset cost of new 5G tech in iPhone 12 by using a simpler battery board design that will be 40%-50% cheaper than the one in iPhone 11
Apple is looking to put a pricing squeeze on component suppliers for the upcoming iPhone 12 lineup to help offset increased costs …
Context & Ripple Effects
Ming-Chi Kuo's supply-chain notes have a long track record on Apple hardware, and this one shows the company's standard playbook for absorbing expensive new features: make the bill of materials pay for itself. The 40%-50% cheaper battery board design lands alongside reports that Apple plans to pressure component suppliers on iPhone 12 pricing specifically to offset what 5G adds to the cost stack.
The pattern predates this leak — when Apple moved to designing its own power-management chips, incumbent supplier Dialog Semiconductor saw shares drop roughly 19% on the news. The same arc later extended to radios, with Apple tapping TSMC to build its own 4nm 5G modem chips to cut its reliance on Qualcomm.
First-order effects
- Battery board suppliers for the iPhone 12 lineup face a redesign mandate and a steep unit-price cut just as 5G components inflate the rest of the BOM they must compete against.
Second-order effects
- Suppliers squeezed on one component class face the same endgame Dialog did on power management: if Apple judges the part strategic, design-out follows price pressure — a risk now visible across radio silicon, where Qualcomm's modem slot is already slated for replacement by TSMC-built Apple silicon.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, every costly new radio or silicon feature gets financed by supplier concessions first and in-house substitution second, steadily converting Apple's supply base from partners into bridge vendors while rivals without that leverage absorb 5G-era costs in their margins or retail prices — a tension that resurfaces in later cycles like Apple weighing fall lineup price increases.
The trend: Apple systematically funds each generational technology jump — 5G today, modems next — by squeezing suppliers on commodity parts and replacing them with in-house designs over time.