Source: Nanfeng Window Salt Finance
On June 29, it was reported that "Apple's 5G chip development failed", which means that even if it is as strong as Apple, it cannot cobble together a "complete industrial chain puzzle".
The short-term impact is that Qualcomm's 5G chips will still be used in the iPhone lineup that consumers buy until 2024.
The "5G chip" here refers to the signal modulation and demodulator chip. On June 29, Tianfeng International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said, "The latest investigation shows that Apple's 5G modem chip development has failed, and Qualcomm will remain the exclusive supplier of 2023 iPhone modem chips."
The 5G chip corresponds to the standard and performance of the mobile phone signal. On this core component, Apple is unwilling to “subdue” for a long time.
For example, at one point, Apple and Qualcomm had a bad relationship. In the years before 2019, the communication chip loaded on the iPhone was provided by Intel, which resulted in poor signal and weak performance. The iPhone left a bad impression of "weak signal chicken" in the consumer electronics market.
In 2019, Apple and Qualcomm "Reconciliation of the Century". However, Apple continues to test its self-developed baseband chips in great strides. After replacing Intel, the pace of "de-Qualcommization" is accelerating.
Apple and Qualcomm
According to foreign media reports, in 2022, Apple will continue to expand its talent pool in the field of baseband chips. At Qualcomm's headquarters in San Diego, Apple posted about 140 jobs for baseband chip development.
But in reality, 5G chips are not easy to bite.
In 2018, on the eve of the commercial use of 5G, Intel announced that it had abandoned its development plan for 5G chips. In the past few years, the development and construction of 5G has been in full swing, but in this hard technology field, there has never been a "unicorn".
On the track, the current players are only Huawei, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Ziguang Zhanrui and Samsung.
However, Apple has not given up on the research and development of 5G chips. Ming-Chi Kuo said he believes Apple will continue to develop its own 5G chips, but when it succeeds, Qualcomm's business development will be enough to offset the cancellation of iPhone orders.
As soon as the news came out, according to media reports, Qualcomm's stock price in regular trading today was as high as $136.45, an increase of more than 7%.