Apple Begrudgingly Admits Qualcomm’s Tech Is ‘The Best’

For a while, it looked as though Apple’s legal spat with Qualcomm could be dragged on for years on end, similar to Apple’s legal battle against Samsung. However, to everyone’s surprise, Apple and Qualcomm settled their dispute where it was reported that Qualcomm will actually supply Apple with 5G modems for its 2020 iPhones.

Now thanks to a report from The Washington Post, it seems that Apple’s settlement with Qualcomm was not a matter of if, but rather a matter of when because it sounds like Apple actually really needed Qualcomm and its tech. This is based on internal memos that were submitted as part of the lawsuit where Apple’s vice president of hardware, Johny Srouji wrote, “Engineering wise, they have been the best.”

An accountant from 2009 had also written in a memo that says that Qualcomm was “widely considered the owner of the strongest patent portfolio for essential and relevant patents for wireless standards.” What’s interesting about these revelations is that in public and as part of their defense, Apple had attempted to try and write Qualcomm’s tech off as being “worthless”, but as we can see based on these memos, Apple might have actually needed Qualcomm more than Qualcomm needed Apple.

That being said, the bad blood now appears to be behind them and Apple might not need to delay their 5G iPhone by another year. However, we have heard that Apple could be looking into the idea of developing its own 5G tech, although we imagine that it will probably be a while before we see anything, so until then, Apple and Qualcomm will just have to play nice with each other.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: 5G, iPhone, Legal, Qualcomm, Social Hit