Have you ever wondered why sometimes the same phone might feature slightly different components? One of the reasons is because of the different technologies that carriers use, such as GSM versus CDMA, in which phone manufacturers will need to create variants to ensure that their phones work on either.However it seems that Intel could have the answer, according to a report from AppleInsider who has confirmed that the company has begun to produce the XMM7560 modem.This was also confirmed in a report from the Nikkei Asian Review where Asha Keddy, Intel’s vice president of technology, systems architecture and client group told the publication, “XMM 7560 [modem chips are] now in the process of being deployed… It is in trial and mass production.”
What this modem does is that it effectively works with both GSM and CDMA, meaning that companies such as Apple will no longer have to source modems from different companies, thus reducing their reliance on Qualcomm’s technology as both companies are currently in a legal battle with each other.
That being said, it seems that we probably shouldn’t expect Apple to drop Qualcomm entirely so soon. Qualcomm is still expected to continue supplying components to Apple, but previous reports have indicated that Qualcomm is playing a much smaller role now than before, where they will supply 30% of the necessary components while Intel will fulfill the remaining 70%. We expect that this number will grow even smaller in the years to come.