5G, Apple's lost decade
Oct 08, 2022| 5G, Apple's lost decade
Back a dozen years ago, Apple had a chance to get on the fast track to developing its own baseband chips by buying Infineon's wireless unit.
Infineon was the leading baseband processor (BP) supplier for the iPhone at the time, handling orders from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4 is the first time Apple has used Qualcomm baseband.
Infineon was the world's fifth-largest maker of baseband chips for mobile phones In 2009, according to Research In China, after Qualcomm, Italian-France-Ericsson, Mediatek and Texas Instruments.
In 2010, there were rumours that Infineon was selling its wireless division, which had been losing money for years. Born FROM Siemens, InfinEON HAS a solid technical background in the field of wireless communication, and more integrated, manufacturing, IC packaging "one-stop", which has attracted Samsung, Intel and other mobile giants.
Industry well-known media have published, suggested that Apple will Infineon in the bag. This comes on the back of Apple's recent acquisitions of PA Semi and Intrinsity, and the launch of its in-house A4 application processor (AP) in a short time. If Apple can win Infineon, the most important mobile phone AP, BP chip integration, is not completely "stable"?
Infineon's wireless business had revenue of $1.1 billion in the previous year, so even at a premium of 1.5 times market estimates, or more than $2 billion, Apple would have made a profit by acquiring a piece of established, futuristic wireless technology. Beyond this village, there would be no store.
But Apple didn't. On August 30, 2010, Intel bought Infineon Wireless for $1.6 billion, gaining valuable 3G and 4G network technology. Miss Infineon, Apple communications baseband a series of "black history" foiled.
Intel became one of Apple's baseband suppliers, starting with the iPhone 7 in 2016. Because of the technology gap, the Intel baseband iPhone signal does not perform as well as the Qualcomm version. But Apple has stuck with Intel baseband, and is said to have intentionally limited the speed of Qualcomm's version to smooth out the experience gap.
After that, Apple and Qualcomm went to court because of patent issues, and Intel became the exclusive baseband supplier of iPhone. The problem of poor signal became more and more obvious, which was criticized by many users.
More damningly, Apple missed the early 5G rollout due to Intel's setback in its 5G baseband development. To do so, Apple had to settle with Qualcomm and go back to Qualcomm baseband, which resulted in the iPhone 12 series 5G phones in 2020 -- a year and a half after Samsung and a year and two months after Huawei.
Today, Apple's homegrown baseband team was acquired from Intel in July 2019 for $1 billion. Rounding it up, Apple is paying for an opportunity it missed nine years ago.
However, the lost time can not be made up, and now Qualcomm, has begun to lay out the 6G network.
Just imagine, if Apple had made a decisive move to buy Infineon Wireless division, could it have built up a solid foundation to take the lead in the 5G and 6G era?
