Apple and Qualcomm have been in a series of patent lawsuits over the past year, and Intel had been caught up in it as it has been the sole supplier of 4G modem chips for some recent iPhones. Apple and Qualcomm made a surprising announcement yesterday about their new multi-year patent sharing and 5G modem chip supply agreement,…
Apple and Qualcomm have been in a series of patent lawsuits over the past year, and Intel had been caught up in it as it has been the sole supplier of 4G modem chips for some recent iPhones. Apple and Qualcomm made a surprising announcement yesterday about their new multi-year patent sharing and 5G modem chip supply agreement, forcing Intel out of the equation. This announcement from Apple and Qualcomm appears to have surprised everyone, including Intel. A few hours later, Intel announced that it will exit the 5G smartphone modem market as it is no longer viable for the company to further invest in the business.
Intel already bowed out to the competition—Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung—a few years ago in the smartphone processing chipset market, ending its Atom chipset lineup. Now, it looks like the company, which is the largest desktop, laptop, and server CPU maker in the world, will be completely wiped out from the smartphone and tablet market. And this is a huge blow to the company since there is tremendous revenue opportunity in the smartphone market as compared to the PC market.
Apple’s legal troubles with Qualcomm started when Apple showed disagreement about Qualcomm’s 4G patent royalty rates and how it charges OEMs royalty fees based on the price of the end product rather than the modem chip itself.
