Despite claims last week to the contrary, Apple's effort to build its own iPhone modem is alive and well. In fact, a new report claims that the company has an eye toward 6G cellular connectivity even as work continues on an Apple-built 5G modem.
That detail was noted in a weekly column by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that notes some of the difficulties Apple has run into trying to develop an in-house modem. The column appeared a week after a couple of thinly sourced reports claimed that Apple's modem efforts were shutting down.
Yet, Gurman says that Apple is eager to not have to turn to Qualcomm for modems beyond that. "Apple is racing to get its modem finished so it doesn’t need to re-up a contract (again) to buy the component from Qualcomm," Gurman wrote.
There are advantages to Apple producing the modem in-house. The main advantage is that it would allow for a greater degree of quality control. Apple is known for being rigorous in its testing and is loath or release anything that doesn’t work to the fullest of its standards. The other reason is that it would allow for better control of product releases. It would also minimize the potential risk of stock shortages.
Apart from the confirmation that Apple's modem efforts aren't coming to an end, there's another interesting bit of information in the Bloomberg report — Apple is already working on a 6G modem for future iPhones.
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