June 29, Guo Mingchi said through social media that Apple own iPhone 5G baseband chip development may have failed, so Qualcomm will continue to be the exclusive supplier of 5G chips for the new iPhone in 2023, with a 100% supply share. (Qualcomm previously estimated 20%). This topic is currently trending on Weibo. The topic #Apple5G Chip Development Failure# has been read 250 million times and discussed 14,000 times.
However, Ming-Chi Kuo also said that Apple will not give up the research and development of the 5G chip because of this, and may need more time to complete related technical research and other work. Some netizens expressed regret at Apple for giving up. At the same time, they did not forget to complain about "Apple's signal problem is really big", "Send signals with love", and "I have to lament that and Huawei are still the best."
In fact, Apple has been sparing no effort in chip research and development, and the A series and M series chips have been unanimously recognized by the market and consumers. However, the 5G baseband chip is different from SoC. It not only has a very complex algorithm, but also has strict requirements in terms of radio frequency, computing power, and energy efficiency. It also needs to be tested and optimized for different situations in different countries and regions around the world. It is also compatible with 4G and 3G GSM and other standards, this results in the development workload and difficulty of developing 5G baseband chips far exceeding that of ordinary chips.
However, Ming-Chi Kuo did not specifically disclose the key points where Apple got stuck. The author believes that the so-called failure should be that Apple’s 5G chip research and development did not meet the preset goals. Of course, the research and development of 5G baseband chips will have little impact on the pace of the iPhone series (including the iPhone 14 series and next year’s iPhone 15 series). According to DigiTimes, Apple suppliers have begun shipping Apple iPhone 14 series models and will be shipped to , Foxconn and other manufacturers in the next few months to complete the final assembly of the iPhone 14. As for which generation of iPhone will use its own 5G baseband chip, we might as well look forward to it.
