Due to the ongoing legal dispute between Apple and Qualcomm, it’s not surprising that Apple would want to stop giving Qualcomm as much business as they can. We’ve seen Apple do this with Samsung in the past, where the Cupertino company sought out other suppliers (such as TSMC and LG) for their component needs.
Apple has characteristically remained mum on their operations and choice of vendors, but recently Qualcomm themselves have spoken up about it. According to CNBC, Qualcomm financial chief George Davis made a statement in which he believes that future iPhones will no longer rely on the company’s modems, and that he believes Apple will “solely use” modems supplied by the competition.
Davies was quoted as saying, “We believe Apple intends to solely use our competitors’ modems rather than our modems in its next iPhone release. We will continue to provide modems for Apple legacy devices.” The competition in question is none other than Intel, where in the past iPhones teardowns have revealed that there are some iPhone models that have Intel’s modems in them.
We have heard reports that Apple and Intel are working together to develop 5G modems for future iPhones, although this might be a short-lived partnership as there have been reports suggesting that iPhones made in 2020 and beyond may no longer rely on Intel either.