Apple goes for everything and now goes for Qualcomm’s employees. In the last few months, the relationship between Qualcomm and Apple has cooled down, although the former company supplies the latter with some components since they are one of the leading mobile chipset manufacturers in the market. Apple considers that Qualcomm has a monopoly and want to put an end to it by building a factory right next to Qualcomm and “stealing” its engineers to design components for them, including a 5G modem for iPhone.
The conflict between Apple and Qualcomm goes back to early 2017 when Apple accused Qualcomm of a dominant market position. Qualcomm replied by ending its distribution for iPhone factories in China and the US. A few months later, Qualcomm said it was only business, but the war was far from over.
Apple Aims To Steal Qualcomm Engineers To Design Its 5G Model for iPhone
As we read in Bloomberg, Apple would have set up a team in San Diego, the home of Qualcomm, to develop chips focused on artificial intelligence and a next 5G modem for iPhone.
Qualcomm has been Apple’s main modem provider for more than five years, and with this move, they would lose a big customer. We’ll see how events unfold, but Apple’s movement looks like a definitive end of a long-term partnership between the two companies. In addition to that, this move reveals that Apple aims to finally design and manufacture all of its internal components for its devices.
In reality, Apple already does that with its mobile chipsets, both CPUs and GPUs, as well as with its MicroLED displays that are supposed to be under development, as we speak. Apple wants to “steal” engineers from Qualcomm to design its 5G modem for iPhone, putting an end to a long-term partnership with Qualcomm, still one of the most significant chipset producers in the world.
