Intel Seeking to Woo Apple Away From Qualcomm for Cellular Baseband Chips

intel-logoIntel is hoping Apple will turn to the California company for the cellular baseband hardware in future mobile products, says Intel Korea President Lee Hee-sung in a statement reported by the Korea Herald. The baseband manages the radio functions of an iPhone or cellular-capable iPad, allowing the device to communicate with the carrier's mobile network.

"Chances are high that global smartphone makers such as Apple and LG Electronics will use Intel’s baseband chips in their products down the road,” said Lee Hee-sung, the president of Intel Korea, at a press meeting on Thursday.

Such collaborations are highly likely given that the world’s largest smartphone maker, Samsung Electronics, has recently announced its midrange premium handset the Galaxy Alpha, which contains Intel’s XMM7260 baseband modem."

Apple had originally used Infineon baseband hardware in early models of the iPhone, but after Infineon was purchased by Intel in 2010 Apple shifted to using communication chips from market leader Qualcomm. Intel has, however, been hard at work at improving its baseband chips, as evidenced by the design win in the new Galaxy Alpha.

Apple and Intel are of course already partners for the complete line of Mac processors, but Apple will undoubtedly focus on technology and pricing considerations in weighing any potential switch for its mobile products.

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

Nozuka Avatar
134 months ago
just choose the most energy efficient one...
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SilianRail Avatar
134 months ago
Competition is a good thing...
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Koodauw Avatar
134 months ago
Lead by example! If you want Apple so bad, then stop dragging your feet with Advancing processors ! Even Steve Jobs was beside himself with how slow Intel was delivering new processors! May we look now at the delays of Broadwell?? All Macs laptop and desktops are delayed with these "little" speed bumps! Get real!! Step up Intel!!! Then You get rewards!!

If you think the Intel updates are slow, you should of been around for the IBM/MOTO G5/G4 DAYS.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tiger8 Avatar
134 months ago
just choose the most energy efficient one...

my vote is for better reception
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
deconstruct60 Avatar
134 months ago
Apple has the A chips (ARM) and the M chips (motion) in their phones. Now they need the B chip (Baseband). No Intel, No Qualcomm.
Apple didn't make or totally design the M7 (motion) chip.
"Chipworks found that the M7 most likely is a NXP LPC1800 based microcontroller called LPC18A1. ..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_M7
Apple just slapped a sticker/moniker on someone else's implementation. There is little to no evidence that isn't the same case with the M8 version. Apple has been buying the "motion" chip along with Baseband. Just different vendors.



Time to double down Tim.
Tim didn't double down on the M chip .... why would baseband be any different? There is extremely little upside to trying to suck it in. The broad and fragmented radio standards around the world Apple largely doesn't have to deal with. It is largely the suppliers problem. If Apple sucks that inside they will need to at least duplicate all that expertise. .... for what upside?

Apple still has a significant subset of iOS devices that have no celluar radios (Wifi iPads).

Apple has stayed ahead of the general ARM applicaiton processor race largely because they haven't distracted their team with anything else but doing the "best" iPhone/iPad SoC unit they can. No distraction on "server market" , no cover every device possible , no "put Intel out of business" distractions.

Even inside of their SoC they are buying shared R&D from ARM and Imagination Tech. There is little to no advantage to going entirely proprietary. It doesn't buy them a whole lot. Doing a good Cortex M3 (or newer) isn't the same thing as the high end A53 (or newer) design. Those are going in different directions.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
paul55br Avatar
134 months ago
Might be just me, but I believe Intel can take cellular chip to the next level. I hope Apple will start discussions with them to see where it leads.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)