Apple To Use Qualcomm Modems Till March 2027

Apple has extended its modem licensing agreement with Qualcomm until March 2027, which means that iPhones and other Apple products could be dependent on Qualcomm's connectivity stack for the next four years. Apple has further extended the modem licensing agreement for the next two years, something Qualcomm revealed in its Q4 earnings calls.

"Apple exercised its unilateral option to extend its global patent license agreement for an additional two years, taking the existing agreement through to March 2027," said Qualcomm.

Apple has been working on developing its own 5G modem for the last five years. In 2019, it even acquired Intel's modem business to accelerate the development of its in-house modem technology so that it could move away from using Qualcomm's technology after it became embroiled in an acrimonious lawsuit over patent royalties. However, Apple's progress has been slow and has seen several delays and it has not been able to move away from Qualcomm's technology.

This news doesn't come as a surprise, as Bloomberg had reported that Apple's work on the modem chip had been postponed until late 2025 and 2026, and it could possibly face more delays in the future. Apple initially aimed to have its own modem ready by 2024. It had planned on using its own modem in an iPhone SE model that would launch in spring 2025, but it wasn't able to achieve that goal.

Apple is reportedly years away from developing a modem that would work as well or better than Qualcomm's modems. Apple has had issues integrating Intel's code, which has been in use since it acquired its modem business in 2019. It has been forced to rewrite the code, which has caused existing features to break. Apple also has the little issue of designing its products in a way so that they don't infringe on Qualcomm's patents.

The iPhone 16 Pro models are expected to use Qualcomm's X75 modem, which would provide better carrier aggregation and a more power-efficient transceiver.

Apple has also been working on developing 6G technologies to get a head start before the standard is finalised. Apple had to delay the addition of 5G in the iPhone by over a year because it couldn't develop its own modem, and to date, it is still struggling with the standard, which is why it is motivated to get a head start on the next generation of the technology.