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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

#81

Post by throwaway2048 »

yyyk wrote: post #61
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…

For a long time, Apple's modems were decidedly inferiour, in fact intentionally throttled, so the 'central competitive advantage' was very much on the high-end Android side. Nobody cared. I don't think this would be any different if Apple one ever seizes the advantage. Ultimately, no one really gets these speeds anyway due to the data carriers.

Nobody cared because 1Gb/s from 4G is la la land fantasy bullshit anyways.

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

#82

Post by tw04 »

ubermonkey wrote: post #70
ilogik wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

assuming you have an iphone, and it has plenty of battery...at one point after using the hotspot for a while my iphone showed a temperature warning, and I had to wait for it to cool off before I could use it again. Having the laptop battery and cooling would be much better

Man, I use the hotspot function of my iPhone all the time and never have heat issues. I wonder why?

Probably a combination of what surface you have it sitting on and which case you use (if any).

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

#83

Post by dsfyu404ed »

ubermonkey wrote: post #70
ilogik wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

assuming you have an iphone, and it has plenty of battery...at one point after using the hotspot for a while my iphone showed a temperature warning, and I had to wait for it to cool off before I could use it again. Having the laptop battery and cooling would be much better

Man, I use the hotspot function of my iPhone all the time and never have heat issues. I wonder why?

Probably because you're close to whatever tower it's connecting to and the radio bits are not having to spend a bunch of energy screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard by the tower.

Even plastic clad android phones will get hot if you try and make a long phone call from BFE.

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

#84

Post by jillesvangurp »

pbalau wrote: post #75
jillesvangurp wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you under-appreciate how stupendously expensive it is to settle patent disputes. There's no question that 4G would have been useful in laptops and given that Apple sells them at a premium, even small increases in market share are very lucrative. The reason they didn't was cost and mitigating risks infringing on relevant patents. For a phone this is essential and not optional, for a laptop this isn't the case.

> I think you under-appreciate how stupendously expensive it is to settle patent disputes. I'm arguing that they already solved this issue, since they are selling so many devices with GSM modems. Unless you can provide documentation demonstrating otherwise, I am not going to believe their agreement is to use GSM modems only on iPhones and these particular models of iPads, but is to use GSM modems on whatever devices…

It's very unlike Apple to deliberately ignore an opportunity to sell a bit of convenience as a premium. Lots of ipad owners own iphones and yet buy the ipad with a 4G modem that they technically don't need. An always on Mac Book Air that "just works" is such an obvious thing to do given the target demographic of people using this on the go, that there must be another reason than "we already sell iphones/ipads". I don't buy the "users don't need this argument" since, I see way too many people thethering their macs with separate access points that are definitely not their phone for this not to be a thing at least.

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

#85

Post by pier25 »

ilogik wrote: post #54
tpetry wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres really no great need in 4g for macbooks? I mean you can activate your wifis hotspot with handoff directly from your macbook without ever touching your iphone.

assuming you have an iphone, and it has plenty of battery...at one point after using the hotspot for a while my iphone showed a temperature warning, and I had to wait for it to cool off before I could use it again. Having the laptop battery and cooling would be much better

> assuming you have an iphone

Any phone can do that, not only iPhones. How often are you on the move without a phone?

Also the battery argument is not so definitive since a laptop on 4G/5G would also consume battery. If you can connect your laptop to a wall outlet you can connect your phone too.

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

#86

Post by Eric_WVGG »

phenylene wrote: post #19

Can someone explain why Intel was having such a hard time competing with Qualcomm? What are the challenges in developing modems?

also, are they even really "modems"? I know that "cable modems" are really routers… surely cellular modems aren't all bzzzt-brrzzt-bing-bong-bing-bong like my 90's Hayes 1200baud.

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

#87

Post by judge2020 »

pentae wrote: post #78

The irony that Apple really hate paying that royalty but expect App developers to do the exact same. Here's a fun anecdotal story. Me and my partner both have iPhone 7+ devices and the same carrier. I get 2 bars of 4G signal and she gets none inside our apartment. She has to walk outside to take calls. I couldn't understand how this was possible but after some research I discovered that my iPhone has a Qualcomm modem…

You're probably in luck with the next iPhone after https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/04/qualcomm-and-apple-ag...

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

#88

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #86
phenylene wrote: post #19

Can someone explain why Intel was having such a hard time competing with Qualcomm? What are the challenges in developing modems?

also, are they even really "modems"? I know that "cable modems" are really routers… surely cellular modems aren't all bzzzt-brrzzt-bing-bong-bing-bong like my 90's Hayes 1200baud.

Yes they are. Modem is an abbreviation for MOdulator-DEModulator which is what they do, they modulate and demodulate radio signals to digital and vice versa.

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

#89

Post by panpanna »

pentae wrote: post #78

The irony that Apple really hate paying that royalty but expect App developers to do the exact same. Here's a fun anecdotal story. Me and my partner both have iPhone 7+ devices and the same carrier. I get 2 bars of 4G signal and she gets none inside our apartment. She has to walk outside to take calls. I couldn't understand how this was possible but after some research I discovered that my iPhone has a Qualcomm modem…

Not to start a flamewar, but did it ever occur to her that there are other smartphone brands out there?

(just trying to understand why people accept this sort of things)

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

#90

Post by zeusk »

tw04 wrote: post #80
pbalau wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason this is not a feature is that it would add a lot of cost related to patents and IP licensing. Looking at the numbers here(1), this is not right. They sold ~46 millions iPhones, ~9 millions iPads for a rounded total of ~50 millions devices with a GSM modem. Meanwhile, they "only" sold ~5 millions Macs, which include all the laptops and desktop offerings. Therefore, adding a GSM device to all their mobile…

You realize that qualcomm's ridiculous licensing terms entitles them to a percentage of the sales price of the end device, right? At $2-3k per laptop that's not exactly chump change and would likely lead to a noticeable price increase on a laptop that's already considered "overpriced" by the general public.

Am I the only one noticing the irony in Apple complaining about overpriced premium devices (chipsets/modems in this case)?
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