The current battle between Qulacomm and Apple has forced the Cupertino-based company to almost completely change the supplier of LTE chips. Until now, the manufacturer that took almost 100% of the orders was Qualcomm, but everything seems to indicate that Apple wants to make the fewest possible deals with this company and for the iPhone 2018, Intel will be the largest chip supplier.
Unconfirmed sources have announced to Fast Company that most of the order for LTE chips will be made to Intel, specifically 70%, while the rest, 30%, will be provided by Qualcomm. Presumably, the processor manufacturer Intel does not have enough capacity to supply the high demand of Apple, hence the Cupertino-based company did not want to close the doors completely.
This news only confirms what Ming-Chi Kuo already announced a few months ago, through his reports. That report stated that Apple would substantially increase the percentage of orders for LTE chips Intel to the detriment of Qualcomm, due to the legal battle between both companies.
However, The Wall Street Journal stated that Apple could only use chips from Intel and MediaTek (Chinese processor manufacturer) in order to completely stop working with Qualcomm, but according to Fast Company the business relationship with Qualcomm will continue to operate.
It will be next year when Intel does take care of all the demand that Apple, nipping any relationship with Qualcomm in the bud, a relationship that began to falter when this multinational sued Apple a little less than a year ago.
The first iPhone to use Intel's LTE chips was the iPhone 7, released in 2016, the year in which Qualcomm ceased to be the sole provider of LTE chips of Apple iPhones. Since now, Intel's presence in Apple mobile devices has been increasing.