Interesting Bloomberg Article on the reasoning behind Apple buying Intel's modem unit is that Apple is ramping up its skills in the 5G area. The article speculates that Apple aims to bring a 5G iPhone to market next year. Here are some excerpts:
Earlier this year, before settling with Qualcomm, Apple re-located its modem engineering team, moving it from the main hardware-engineering group under longtime vice president Ruben Caballero, into the hardware-technologies division led by Srouji. Caballero has since left the company. The settlement with Qualcomm helps Apple in part to be able to bring a 5G iPhone to market next year after Intel missed deadlines and featured inferior performance, according to people familiar with the series of events. By planning to develop its own modems, Apple will not need to rely on a third-party designer for such a key part. Selling its own modems would follow the long-time Apple playbook, which is to design critical components internally. Apple already designs the main processors for its mobile devices and eventually plans to do the same for Mac computers. The company also built its own graphics engines, wireless chips and is exploring custom batteries and screens.
Regards, Fel
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