Sources: SVP of hardware tech Johny Srouji told staff that Apple has started working on its own cellular modem for future devices, to replace Qualcomm chips
- Component would eventually replace mobile chips from Qualcomm — Srouji describes in-house design efforts in town hall meeting
Context & Ripple Effects
The modem effort has a visible lineage: back in early 2019, sources reported Apple had moved its modem engineering unit into Johny Srouji's in-house hardware technology group, and this town hall is the first confirmation that the design work itself is underway. The target is Qualcomm, whose chips have powered Apple's devices since the two companies' supply relationship resumed.
The payoff took years to land — later reporting shows the 2023 swap plan hitting snags even as Apple pursued a parallel Broadcom-replacing Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip, before sources indicated the first in-house modems would ship in the iPhone SE with higher-end models following. This announcement is the starting gun for that long arc.
First-order effects
- Qualcomm faces the eventual loss of its single largest modem customer, converting a guaranteed high-volume socket into one it must defend on merit once Apple's design matures.
- Srouji's hardware technologies group takes ownership of another critical component, extending the same in-house model that already covers Apple's main processors.
Second-order effects
- Success would set a template for Apple's other merchant-silicon dependencies — the reported combined Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip targeting Broadcom components follows the identical replace-the-vendor playbook.
- Qualcomm's response options narrow toward competing on performance and pricing for remaining customers, since Apple's exit removes the anchor account that shaped its handset modem business.
Third-order effects
- If the multi-year rollout holds, radio silicon joins compute as a category where Apple designs its own chips, structurally shrinking the merchant market for the handful of suppliers still inside its devices.
- The slow timeline itself becomes the lesson: modem complexity proved far harder than Apple's processor wins, tempering expectations for how quickly any supplier can be swapped out.
The trend: Apple is systematically replacing merchant silicon vendors — Qualcomm now, Broadcom reportedly next — with in-house designs built inside Srouji's hardware technology organization.