chip has been a word that has been talked about around the world in recent years.
chip is a general term that generally refers to highly integrated circuits, which are high-tech products with miniaturized processing unit circuits. Computer CPU is a chip, mobile phone SOC is a chip, mobile phone GPU is a chip. The mobile phone baseband, which is closely related to signals, is also a chip.
Why is the signal of apple always very poor? The pain point is that there is a problem with the baseband chip .
is in the wrong team. Apple
's first-generation iPhone used the 2G network, while the communication giants Nokia and Motorola used 3G at the same time.
For the second-generation iPhone, Apple cooperated with Infineon to have a baseband chip with 3G network functions. However, Infineon’s baseband technology was immature, resulting in a high iPhone failure rate, so Apple turned to cooperate with Qualcomm .
The design of the 4th generation iphone, Jobs creatively integrated the antenna and the frame. As a result, a problem that users were extremely dissatisfied with happened: there was no signal on the phone when holding the frame. This is the "Antenna Gate" incident of iphone 4.
In 2016, the tax charged by Qualcomm to the baseband project was too expensive. Apple, which is also not vegetarian, fell out with Qualcomm and found another chip giant - Intel .
However, although Intel, which acquired Infineon, wanted to compete with Qualcomm on baseband chips, it was unable to parry. Apple spent three years and countless financial resources, but the product still has a poor signal.
quietly developed Huawei
While Apple was still worried about Intel's service efficiency and was preparing to take the Infineon team under its wing, Huawei was quietly developing basebands.
Huawei develops baseband chips because of one of its products that accounts for 70% of the global market share: 3G data network card.
When Qualcomm was still the dominant player in baseband chips, its supply capacity was insufficient. However, Qualcomm has done two things: one is to equalize the supply of goods, and the other is to increase the tax rate. As a major baseband customer, Huawei found that the supply was insufficient and prices were increased.
This gives Huawei the reason and motivation to independently develop baseband chips. After several years of Huawei pouring its energy into it, HiSilicon finally produced results: the Baron 700 baseband. Since then, the monopoly of Qualcomm baseband chips has ended.
HiSilicon Semiconductor continues to work hard and successfully develops 5G baseband chips, which makes the Kirin chip even more powerful. After
, Comrade "Chuan Jianguo" launched the "Entity List", and Huawei's baseband stayed on the 5G multi-mode chip that is highly integrated with Barong 5000 and Kirin 9000.
Re-settlement with Qualcomm, Apple compromised too much
Under the demand of the 5G market, Apple had to settle with Qualcomm at the cost of an "apology fee" of US$4.7 billion.
Do you think it’s just a financial compromise? No, what makes Apple even more troublesome is the compromise of technology. As a kind of chip, the
baseband itself can be integrated into the mobile phone CPU unit. Both Qualcomm's Snapdragon baseband and Huawei's Kirin chips incorporate the baseband design. Apple faces a choice:
either baseband plug-in, or redesign the A series CPU chip.
Considering the time and cost, Apple chose the baseband plug-in. However, problems such as heating cannot be solved, and the performance of the baseband chip cannot be fully exerted, further affecting the overall signal of the mobile phone.
The result is that although the signal of iPhones equipped with external basebands after 2019 has improved compared with before, there is still a gap with other mobile phones equipped with Qualcomm and Kirin basebands.
goes around and around and jumps sideways repeatedly, and even gets pinched when he offends the boss. This is the first time that Apple has suffered such a huge failure. If Jobs knew about it, he would probably be so angry that he would open the coffin.
04 has learned from the experience that Apple did not want to live a life of being manipulated by others when it acquired Infineon
. After all, Apple is used to teasing others, so how could it allow others to pinch its neck?
After thinking about it for many years, Apple decided to do it on its own, and with a wave of its hand, it acquired Infineon for US$1 billion.However, after investing for several years, I found that the difficulty of baseband chips is comparable to that of CPU chips.
The difficulty is that the baseband chip needs to be suitable for almost all communication standards. Whether it is the CDMA promoted by Qualcomm or the internationally mainstream WCDMA, although they are both TDD-LTE routes, don't forget that there is also 5G. 5G has two routes: "millimeter wave" and "Sub-6". In addition, various regions do not obey the discipline of International Telecommunications Union , which makes R&D people headache and brain-burning.
After Qualcomm obtained and announced the news that Apple failed to develop baseband chips, Apple did not say anything. Maybe it's embarrassment, maybe it's helplessness, maybe it's a headache.
No surprise, given Apple’s temper, it will not give up the research and development of baseband chips. 80% of the profits in the mobile phone industry are enough for Apple to continue investing.
At the same time, Huawei's temporary hibernation for some reasons also gave Qualcomm baseband the opportunity to make a lot of money during the gap period. Huawei is important to China's chip industry. You can criticize its high price and low configuration, and you can accuse it of selling sentiments. Although the latter has no basis, some people are making groundless accusations. But no one said that its signal is poor. This is its strength.
For a long time, Apple will still use Qualcomm’s plug-in baseband and is still troubled by signal problems. The hardware squeeze and the slow development of the iOS system have combined with Apple’s consistent stubbornness and domineering training of users. As the big brother in the industry, Apple faces quite a few problems.
It can be said that if Apple does not change its attitude except for baseband issues, then Samsung will regain the throne. If Huawei's shackles are broken off by then, the situation between the two heroes will completely knock Apple off the altar.
Sure enough, no one in the industry can take it lightly.
