The apple is still the apple.
Although the iPhone 13 has only been released for less than four months, it is reasonable to say that the exposure news at this time should be around the iPhone 14 released in September this year, but in fact, many media have announced various news about the iPhone 15.
According to a supply chain news, the iPhone 14 will be equipped with Samsung's 4nm process qualcomm 5G data machine chip X65 and RF IC, and this may be Apple's last iPhone product equipped with a third-party baseband chip. That is to say, on the iPhone 15, Apple will be equipped with the latest self-developed 5G baseband chip, and it is also the first iPhone to use all self-developed chips. This news also coincides with the rumors that in 2020, the senior president of Apple's hardware technology department revealed to the outside world that Apple has launched a self-developed baseband project.
It is reported that Apple's self-developed 5G baseband chip will be foundry by TSMC, using a 5nm process, rficide IC will use TSMC 7nm process, A17 application processor will be foundry by TSMC, using 3nm process mass production.
Although the authenticity of this news cannot be confirmed at present, according to Apple's consistent style, it is a foregone conclusion that the hardware inside the iPhone will all be developed in the future.
Why baseband now?
There may be some readers who do not know much about the baseband, after all, most mobile phone manufacturers will not take it as the focus of product promotion, almost all of them are a pass, here Xiao Lei will briefly explain it.
In fact, the role of the baseband for mobile phones is no less than the traditional cognition of soC, it is part of the smart phone SoC, the role of the baseband (Modem) can be said to be extremely important, which is responsible for wireless communication signal sending and receiving, and digital signal processing, but also our mobile phone can call, text, and the key to the Internet. In simple terms, the baseband is equivalent to a language translator, responsible for the data we want to send, it can be said that the voice can also be network information, according to the established rules (5G mmWave/Sub-6) to convert the format, and then send it out.
To put it more simply, the baseband is the component that determines the mobile phone signal and the network, if the baseband is "too bad", it will directly affect the actual experience of the user, which Xiao Lei believes that many iPhone users should have a deep understanding. After all, the iPhone's signal performance is almost at the bottom of the industry, perhaps Apple believes that only self-development can bring a good experience, of course, this is only a hypothesis.
So how difficult is a small baseband chip that apple, a tech giant, is only now starting to develop itself?
First of all, we must understand that the baseband chip research and development is not the same as the application processor (AP), which requires long-term accumulation, and cannot be done without more than 10 years of accumulation. Especially in the 5G era, if a company does not have the accumulation of 2G to 4G technology, it is almost impossible to directly develop 5G baseband chips. Take Qualcomm and Intel as an example, because Qualcomm has a certain communication foundation, so they only need to invest two or three hundred people in the development of 5G baseband, while Intel not only needs to invest thousands of people, but also the baseband developed is slightly inferior.
Secondly, it is not enough to have technical background, but also needs to use a lot of manpower and time to conduct field investigation and testing around the world, in order to make a baseband chip support different frequency bands in different countries and regions around the world. For example, like what gsm, gprs, edge, tdscdma, wcdma, hspa/+, tdd-lte, fdd-lte, cdma these standards can not be left behind, the lack of any one is likely to lead to mobile phones in some regions / countries have no signal and no network situation.
In addition, there are also the Americas band, the European band, and the China band, which also need support. What is more troublesome is that in addition to so many network standards, it also includes the device compatibility of different communication devices. What Ericsson, North, Alang, Huawei, ZTE, you don't know what equipment the operator uses when networking, so the safest way is to fully support the device.
To summarize simply, If Apple wants to develop its own 5G baseband chip, it needs to meet the three major elements of technology, manpower and time at the same time, which are indispensable. If it is so laborious and undesirable, why does Apple not continue to use Qualcomm or Intel's baseband like Android manufacturers?
The answer is simple, Apple wants to make further cost savings and thus boost the iPhone's profits.
Why should Apple go to great lengths to be unflattering?
Throughout the development history of the iPhone, it is not difficult to find that the realization of core component autonomy is undoubtedly Apple's "self-research" has always been a correct path pursued by Apple, as early as the Jobs era, he laid for Apple to try to do "everything in control" genes, of course, you can also see it as to save costs.
For example, as early as 2008, Apple acquired the architecture license for ARM and acquired the microprocessor design company P.A. for $278 million. Semi, thus obtaining a professional team of 150 people with related patents. Therefore, on the iPhone 4 two years later, Apple launched its first self-developed processor, the A4, and successfully replaced the Samsung processor. It was from the iPhone 4 that Apple officially embarked on the road of self-research.
A decade later, Apple spent $600 million poaching 300 core engineers from power IC vendor Dialog and acquiring some of the latter's devices. At the same time, in order to get rid of the dependence on Samsung screens, it is reported that it has invested heavily in MicroLED and has been a major global patent applicant in this field since two years ago.
For example, in 2020, Apple launched the first MacBook series equipped with an M1 processor, which far exceeds the Intel processor of the previous generation in terms of performance and energy efficiency. In 2021, Apple will directly launch the M1 Pro and M1 Max two top mobile desktop processors, which means that Apple can completely get rid of Intel in terms of mobile processors.
Finally, there is the baseband part, readers who have a little understanding of Apple should be clear that Apple has introduced Intel's baseband products in order to get rid of its dependence on Qualcomm, but from the market feedback, most users do not recognize Intel's baseband products. After all, intel is slower than Qualcomm in the same period of time in the process of about a year, coupled with the iPhone has been criticized for the antenna design, a variety of reasons led to the iPhone 7 to iPhone 11 period signal performance is difficult to satisfy.
After entering the 5G era, because of the chip process process crotch, the XMM 8160 5G baseband released by Intel can only be built using a 10nm process process, which is not only inferior to Huawei's Baron 5000 baseband (7nm process) in terms of performance, but also because of various problems, the mass production time has been delayed again and again, which has seriously affected the testing and development of the iPhone 12, resulting in Apple finally spending money and Qualcomm reconciliation, so as to ensure the normal listing of the iPhone 12 series.
Perhaps it is precisely because the core components are subject to people's unhappiness that Apple is determined to develop its own baseband chips, and even acquire Intel's baseband business. It is not difficult to find that in the same year that Apple and Qualcomm reached a settlement, Apple acquired a whole Intel wireless business unit, which also implies that Apple wants to completely get rid of Qualcomm's shackles.
So for Apple, how much cheaper is the self-developed baseband than the products provided by Qualcomm? According to the Fomalhaut data report, the cost of the plug-in Qualcomm X55 5G baseband on the iPhone 12 series is as high as 630 yuan, which is much more expensive than the IPhone's self-developed A14 processor, which is also one of the drawbacks of the external baseband.
So if Apple can integrate 5G baseband into the processor, how much cost can it save? Here Xiao Lei uses the built-in baseband of the Orion 980 processor as an example, and its cost is about 300 yuan, which is much cheaper than the external baseband used by Apple.
In addition, the integrated baseband also has the advantages of reducing the overall size of the processor, power consumption and reducing heat generation, etc., and it is not too much to talk about based on the length of the article.
In general, at present, for Apple, the biggest challenge to develop its own 5G baseband chip is not the basic technology, but the actual application ability. As mentioned earlier, there are currently a considerable number of operators and network standards in the world, which means that their tests for this chip need to run all over the world to ensure that the baseband performance can reach an average level.
Self-developed baseband is just a signal, full self-research is the future?
In fact, in addition to the baseband and CPU, Apple also has two higher-cost hardware that are still limited by other manufacturers, that is, screens and camera sensors. Due to the current huge advantages of Samsung on small and medium-sized OLED screens (mainly the invincibility of production capacity), Apple can only distribute most of the orders to Samsung, and the rest is handed over to LG.
According to Cook's supply chain philosophy, the key components should be borne by enough manufacturers, but in the end, the iPhone screen is still subject to people, and the cost is still a problem. Therefore, as early as 2018, there were supply chain reports that Apple was producing a small number of Micro LED screens, micro LED compared to the most high-end OLED screen on the market, with lower energy consumption, longer life, and better fineness. Of course, everything has advantages and disadvantages, and its biggest drawback at present is that the production difficulty is too high, and the yield rate is extremely low.
Although the production is difficult and the upfront investment is large, it has not shaken Apple's determination to develop its own screen, which can actually be seen from the mini LED screen on the iPad Pro 2021. In order to ensure that the iPad Pro can use the mini LED screen, even if Apple's strong supply chain control capabilities, in the case of global chip shortage, the original march conference was postponed by one month, and it will take a month to officially ship after the release, which shows Apple's determination.
In addition, the development of MicroLED screens is also a manifestation of Apple's priority to master new technologies, which will be an advantage in front of competitors. From the birth of the first generation of iPhone itself is the innovation of the mobile phone industry, its advanced nature is self-evident, and then Apple is ahead of the industry in the use of multi-touch, retina-level screen, Touch ID and now the latest facial recognition, which has made Apple have a considerable competitive advantage, and more mobile phone manufacturers play nothing more than the role of followers. So investing energy in the development of MicroLED screens is also the embodiment of this strategy, which can further open up the gap between the iPhone and the opponent, which is exactly what Apple wants to see.
For Apple, taking the supply of core components into its own hands is the direction it has been persevering. As for other non-core components, Apple also hopes to adopt a model of joint supply from multiple suppliers. On the one hand, it is for the stable shipment of its own products, on the other hand, it is to improve its bargaining power and expand profits.
This is actually bad news for Android manufacturers, which means that the gap between iPhone and Android phones will be further widened in the future, and it is almost impossible to achieve overtaking in a short period of time. However, for now, OPPO, vivo, and millet are already developing their own chips or ISPs, although we have not yet seen the actual role of these self-developed chips, but they are willing to try is a good thing.