It had been rumored for months, and the news about it had intensified in recent weeks, but it was not until a few moments ago that Apple confirmed one of its largest acquisitions to date. Cupertino company takes over Intel's modem division for $ 1000 billion.
The purchase includes all patents (about 17.000) and Intel division engineers (about 2.200) who will become part of the Apple staff to work in the new company towards the future modems that will incorporate the iPhone in a few years. What does this acquisition mean? We explain it to you below.
Almost everyone is familiar with Apple's confrontation with Qualcomm, a manufacturer that practically monopolizes modems for smartphones. This confrontation caused this year's iPhone to have Intel modems, inferior in performance to those of Qualcomm according to experts. This fight between these two tech titans ended with an agreement between both companies that will allow iPhones to carry Qualcomm's 5G modems in the near future, but Apple took note and will not allow this to happen again.
The company has been studying how to make its own modems for a long time. This would mean seamlessly integrating your hardware and software, developing new features that could set you apart from the competition., and above all, not depend on any manufacturer and their patents. But this is not an easy task, and it took a long time, so Apple has decided to take a shortcut.
Buying Intel (its division of modems for smartphones) means you suddenly acquire patents and qualified personnel that can help to considerably accelerate the design process of your new modems that would not arrive for several years, some estimate that not before five. In the meantime you can use Qualcomm modems. Once they do, they will have control over the main components of a smartphone: processor, graphics, modem and wireless chips, and they are working to design their own batteries and displays.