Apple’s plan to use its own Wi-Fi chip in the 2025 iPhone seems to have come to an abrupt end.
Well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chu Kuo believes that Apple has now halted development(Opens in a new window) on its own Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combination chip “for a while.” His conclusion is based on a recent survey of the foundry, equipment, packaging, and testing sectors that form the semiconductor industry.
The reason for pausing development is down to resources, according to Kuo. Apple needs to maintain its pace of developing new “A” and “M” series processors for new generations of the iPhone, iPad, and Macs. That means shifting to 3nm processor technology, so Apple has “most of its IC design resources” focused on these chips.
The situation leaves little room for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip development, but Kuo also believes this is delaying Apple’s own 5G baseband chip from being produced. Kuo says Apple’s Wi-Fi chip efforts are currently less important than the 5G chip, and both are low on the to-do list.
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It makes sense that Apple would put most of its focus on Apple Silicon SoCs because only Apple can design them. At the same time, it has long-established partnerships with companies such as Broadcom and Qualcomm who supply Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G chips, and neither company is going to turn down a new order from Apple.
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