Company CEO says the Apple chip will be ready next year

Feb 28, 2023 05:56 GMT  ·  By

It’s no longer a secret that Apple is working around the clock on reducing its reliance on third-party suppliers.

And to do this, the company wants to develop more components in-house, with a 5G chip expected to become the latest addition to this strategy next year.

Apple has so far remained rather tight-lipped on its plans to build its own modem, but people familiar with the matter believe the iPhone 16, which is due in 2024, could be the first iPhone to come with an Apple 5G chip.

As it turns out, Qualcomm, the company that currently supplies the 5G chips to Apple, also expects the Cupertino-based iPhone maker to switch to an in-house modem next year.

“We expect that Apple will do their own modem in 2024, but if they need ours they know where to find us,” CEO Cristiano Amon was quoted as saying.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the iPhone maker is still working on its 5G chip, and a decision as to whether the modem would debut on the iPhone 16 is not yet set in stone.

“It's still being determined whether the iPhone 16 series will use Apple's 5G baseband chip. The main challenge lies in whether Apple can overcome the technical obstacles related to mmWave and satellite communications,” Kuo said in a tweet.

On the other hand, the next-generation iPhone SE, also expected next year, is very likely to adopt the new chip. Other Apple devices due in 2024 would then follow in its footsteps, Kuo says.

“The new iPhone SE 4 will equip with Apple's 5G baseband chip produced by a 4nm process (similar to 5nm) and will only support Sub-6GHz as the current plan. Assuming the mass production of the SE 4 goes smoothly in 1H24, the iPad and Apple Watch, which have lower technical requirements, will soon abandon Qualcomm's baseband chips, too,” Kuo notes.