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Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

wsj.com

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Re: Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

#11

Post by ohazi »

simonh wrote: post #9

I think the real risk here is Apple sucking the profitability out of the high end modem business. Qualcomm makes most of their high end modem money out of Apple. The other flagship Android phone makers may not be a big enough market to justify Qualcomm developing the very costly high end modems they need. That could leave Apple as the only manufacturer with the best modems. We’re at least a few years away from that p…

Qualcomm has prevented 20 years worth of upstarts from even attempting to enter the high-end modem business. There isn't a market for high-end modems, there's only Qualcomm.

At this point, nuking Qualcomm's profitability seems like the only reasonable thing left to try.

Re: Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

#12

Post by mschuster91 »

mcphage wrote: post #4
bpye wrote: post #2

This worries me. Wouldn't this leave us with Qualcomm once again the only manafacturer of cellular modems for everyone else? I somehow doubt Apple would keep supplying the Intel parts to any other OEMs.

> Wouldn't this leave us with Qualcomm once again the only manafacturer of cellular modems for everyone else? They already are.

I thought Mediatek also did their own modem+cpu combos?

Re: Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

#13

Post by IceWreck »

Apple sued Qualcomm to drop their prices and used Intel to keep them in check. After their settlement/agreement with Qualcomm, they started using Qualcomm and dropped Intel and then Intel quit the smartphone chip business. Now theyre planning to buy Intel's smartphone SoC business for a fraction of the money they would've paid before.

Nice strategy, but its somewhat unethical.

Re: Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

#14

Post by abbe_k »

mschuster91 wrote: post #12
mcphage wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wouldn't this leave us with Qualcomm once again the only manafacturer of cellular modems for everyone else? They already are.

I thought Mediatek also did their own modem+cpu combos?

They do. And so does Samsung. I haven't checked but I would be surprised if Huawei didn't have their own modems too.

Re: Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

#15

Post by savoytruffle »

IceWreck wrote: post #13

Apple sued Qualcomm to drop their prices and used Intel to keep them in check. After their settlement/agreement with Qualcomm, they started using Qualcomm and dropped Intel and then Intel quit the smartphone chip business. Now theyre planning to buy Intel's smartphone SoC business for a fraction of the money they would've paid before. Nice strategy, but its somewhat unethical.

Why do you say that? Everybody in the world is desperate to escape or evade Qualcomm's predatory monopoly.

Re: Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

#16

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #8
bpye wrote: post #2

This worries me. Wouldn't this leave us with Qualcomm once again the only manafacturer of cellular modems for everyone else? I somehow doubt Apple would keep supplying the Intel parts to any other OEMs.

> Wouldn't this leave us with Qualcomm once again the only manafacturer of cellular modems for everyone else? I somehow doubt Apple would keep supplying the Intel parts to any other OEMs. This could go either way. Apple is clearly doing this because they want to give Qualcomm the finger. But if they really want to do that then they do sell parts to any other OEM. Most of the devices these radios go in don't actually…

>Apple could sell the chips for commodity prices and make a bit of profit for itself

Never gonna happen. You can't just sell the chips, you also need to provide a TON of support to your customers and integrators and in the semiconductor business that's way too much of a hassle for Apple to be worth it. They have much bigger fish to fry.

Re: Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

#17

Post by benj111 »

IceWreck wrote: post #13

Apple sued Qualcomm to drop their prices and used Intel to keep them in check. After their settlement/agreement with Qualcomm, they started using Qualcomm and dropped Intel and then Intel quit the smartphone chip business. Now theyre planning to buy Intel's smartphone SoC business for a fraction of the money they would've paid before. Nice strategy, but its somewhat unethical.

They wanted to move away from Qualcomm because they were taking the piss. The problem was that the Intel chips were never that good so the were forced to settle with Qualcomm. It's a story of Intel being useless rather than Apple being evil.

Re: Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

#18

Post by briandear »

IceWreck wrote: post #13

Apple sued Qualcomm to drop their prices and used Intel to keep them in check. After their settlement/agreement with Qualcomm, they started using Qualcomm and dropped Intel and then Intel quit the smartphone chip business. Now theyre planning to buy Intel's smartphone SoC business for a fraction of the money they would've paid before. Nice strategy, but its somewhat unethical.

How is it unethical? If you live in a village with two bakeries and one, your favorite, starts charging you double for their delicious bread, you then start shopping at the other one who’s bread is terrible, but suitable enough. Now, faced with competition, your favorite bakery lowers their price, so you go back to your favorite.

Now, the second bakery is hanging on by a thread because you aren’t buying his bad bread. He decides to get out of the bakery business so he can use the money to invest in his roofing business instead. You see an opportunity to make even better bread than the best bakery, so you agree to buy the second bakery.

Nothing unethical at all there. That’s exactly how free markets are supposed to work. The key point is that nobody forced Intel to make bad modems and nobody should be obligated to pay Qualcomm’s high prices. It isn’t Apple’s fault that Intel modems weren’t that good. It isn’t Apple’s fault they want to build something better than other market participants are currently providing.

Re: Apple in Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Smartphone-Modem Chip Business

#20

Post by godzillabrennus »

StudentStuff wrote: post #10
dnautics wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasnt ericsson supposed to buy a buncha intel modems?

IIRC that deal was Ericsson fabbing their LTE & 5G basestations on Intel's 10nm process, but Intel's 10nm process can't produce large working chips in volume (and likely never will), which has kneecapped Ericsson as a cellular vendor.

TIL Ericsson still exists.
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