Text/Ball Review/Zi Yang Correction/Zhi Qiu
The reason why Apple's mobile phone products are welcomed by global consumers is that on the one hand, it benefits from the iOS operating system created at the software level, which attracts many users with its advantages of security and fluency;
On the other hand, thanks to the hardware level, Apple's research and development level is at the world's leading level, and the self-developed A-series processor is far beyond the friendly business, which can be called the existence of the ceiling in the field of mobile phone chips.
However, the poor signal of Phone products has been criticized by consumers.
Apple's 5G baseband chip has made new progress
As the world's top mobile phone chip design company, Apple has launched mobile phone products with poor signal problems, which is indeed unreasonable, so Apple has conducted in-depth research on 5G baseband chips.
IT Home news on January 10, Apple's new independent research and development of 5G baseband chip products has completed the design, and began trial production, is expected to achieve mass production by 2023 commercial.
According to the author's understanding, the 5G baseband chip products developed by Apple will continue to be foundry by TSMC and built by advanced 5nm process, and the performance of the baseband chip should not be too bad.
In fact, the news that Apple's self-developed 5G baseband chip will arrive in 2023 is basically true. As early as 2021, Tianfeng International analyst Guo Mingji and Qualcomm executives said that Apple's self-developed 5G baseband will arrive in 2023.
There is no doubt that whether it is Guo Mingxi's prediction or the statement of Qualcomm executives, it shows from the side that Apple's self-developed 5G baseband will come in 2023.
In fact, Apple has long been involved in the research and development of baseband chips, and has also included Intel's mobile phone baseband research and development team under its command.
With the technology accumulation and talent accumulation of the Intel baseband team as the foundation, Apple is relatively easy to develop 5G baseband, so the author believes that it is reasonable for Apple to launch the first 5G baseband chip product in 2023.
Advantages of self-developed 5G baseband
For Apple, the self-developed 5G baseband is not only to improve the signal problem, but also has three advantages: on the one hand, it reduces the cost of iPhone products. As we all know, apple launched the iPhone 12 series and iPhone 13 series products, both using Qualcomm 5G baseband modules, but according to Qualcomm's charging rules, Apple not only has to pay the cost of purchasing 5G baseband, but also has to pay patent fees to Qualcomm.
Therefore, after Apple successfully developed 5G baseband products, it can further reduce the cost of 5G baseband and improve the profit of products.
On the other hand, Apple's self-developed baseband can better adapt to the rhythm development of its own products. As smartphones become more powerful, the interior space of the fuselage becomes more crowded, and if Apple has been attaching Qualcomm basebands to its own products, it is not a long-term solution.
Therefore, when Apple develops A series processors, it can integrate the self-developed 5G baseband into the chip, which can avoid the external baseband from occupying the fuselage space, and also allow the chip and the baseband to achieve a better synergy effect and improve the stability of the 5G signal.
The most important thing is that Apple can develop a more adaptable 5G baseband product according to the characteristics of its own products.
Finally, in the context of global core shortage, Apple's self-developed 5G baseband can ensure normal supply. You know, in the case of too many uncertainties in the global chip market environment, only by grasping the chip initiative can we be independent.
Qualcomm is worried about what happens
For Apple, the successful development of 5G baseband is naturally a good thing, but for Qualcomm, it is just the opposite, because Apple will completely get rid of Qualcomm's dependence.
You know, thanks to the hot sales of the two 5G products of the iPhone 12 series and the iPhone 13 series in the global mobile phone market, Apple has provided Qualcomm with a good revenue.
Once Apple begins to use the self-developed 5G baseband, it will not only weaken Qualcomm's revenue capabilities, but also further reduce Qualcomm's strength in the field of mobile phone chips.
It is worth mentioning that the mobile phone chip market has given birth to the dark horse of MediaTek, which has continuously impacted qualcomm's market, and MediaTek has become the world's largest chip supplier for many quarters.
To put it bluntly, Qualcomm is currently facing internal and external troubles.
Therefore, Qualcomm should prepare early and expand the new chip business as much as possible to make up for the loss caused by the loss of Apple orders in the future.
Write to the end
In the author's opinion, Apple's self-developed 5G baseband still cannot avoid paying 5G patent fees to communication companies. According to the author's understanding, 5G baseband belongs to communication products, and many 5G technologies need to be involved in the research and development process, and Apple, as a mobile phone company, naturally has a reserve in 5G patented technology that cannot be compared with Qualcomm, Huawei and other companies.
Therefore, Apple's self-developed 5G baseband will inevitably be unable to bypass the 5G patent technical barriers established by Huawei and Qualcomm, and it is an inevitable result to pay 5G patent fees.
But in general, Apple's self-developed 5G baseband is still a lot of benefits.