Qualcomm chips have been a staple in the mobile industry for years. Apple, Samsung, Motorola, and dozens of other mobile phone makers have used Qualcomm chips at one point or another. Now, it is being reported that Apple may be dropping the use of Qualcomm chips in its 2018 iOS devices. The company has already split things up with the iPhone 8 with some running Intel chips and others Qualcomm. The bitterness between the companies is no secret with Apple accusing Qualcomm of exhortation. The company claims Qualcomm is trying to benefit from technologies it had nothing to do with.
“The more Apple innovates with unique features such as TouchID, advanced displays, and cameras, to name just a few, the more money Qualcomm collects for no reason and the more expensive it becomes for Apple to fund these innovations,” Apple said in a statement. “Qualcomm built its business on older, legacy, standards but reinforces its dominance through exclusionary tactics and excessive royalties. Despite being just one of over a dozen companies who contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined.” ~Forbes~
For its part, Qualcomm had been seeking a ban on iPhone imports into the United States.
Qualcomm is reportedly seeking to ban the import of iPhones into the United States, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing one source familiar with the matter.
The news follows a decision by Apple last week in which the company said it would stop paying royalties to Qualcomm until an ongoing dispute over the payments is resolved. Qualcomm lowered its fiscal third-quarter guidance to a range of $4.8 billion to $5.6 billion, down from $5.3 billion to $6.1 billion, following Apple’s decision. ~CNBC~
Some experts are speculating that Apple shouldn’t have any issue working Qualcomm chips out of their equation.
“Apple is big enough that if they want to support multiple paths, they can do that,” Rasgon said. “Samsung (Electronics Co (005930.KS)) did this too. A couple of years ago, Samsung designed Qualcomm out, but Qualcomm didn’t even know until it was close to time to ship” Samsung’s phones, Rasgon said.
The rumor is Apple may be looking to Intel and even MediaTek for their future chip sourcing. MediaTek is an interesting choice in this equation as Qualcomm has always been the preferred supplier. It looks like MediaTek will have to up its game since they are being eyeballed by Cupertino.
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[button link=”https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-qualcomm-iphone/apple-could-drop-qualcomm-components-in-next-years-iphones-ipads-sources-idUSKBN1D0099″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Reuters[/button]
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