Apple plans to drop Qualcomm components in future products

Per a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple is designing its future iPhones and iPads in order to end reliance on Qualcomm components.Dana Mattioli and Tripp Mickle report that Apple would most likely replace modem chips from Qualcomm with chips from Intel and/or MediaTek Inc.

Apple has a long history with Qualcomm that seems to have been strained by an increasingly intense legal battle. This fight began when Apple filed a lawsuit earlier this year citing various grievances against Qualcomm including misusing its market leadership to block competition and inflate patent royalty costs.

This is still subject to change, as the report is not verified by Apple. The gravity of the effects of this change may not be entirely known until the change is officially made, but the reporters at the WSJ believe it may create more problems than you may first imagine:

Jettisoning Qualcomm chips would create risks for Apple. Semiconductor analysts widely consider modem chips from Intel and MediaTek, a smaller chip designer based in Taiwan, to lag Qualcomm in performance in areas such as download speeds. For example, Qualcomm has shipped a chip in phones that can process 1 gigabit of data per second, while Intel and MediaTek haven’t demonstrated modem chips that fast, said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at technology research firm Moor Insights & Strategy.

Intel and MediaTek both stand to gain a large profit if Apple decides to follow through with the reported switch.

What do you think about the reported switch away from Qualcomm parts? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: The Wall Street Journal