Apple had plans to develop its own Wi-Fi chip, in particular to use it in the iPhone and no longer depend on Broadcom, which currently handles this component. But Apple has suspended development, and has been for a while according to Ming-Chi Kuo.
Apple initially planned to design its own Wi-Fi chip, then to create its chip combining Wi-Fi + Bluetooth. There is also talk of a home modem to support 5G. But it is stagnating and the manufacturer now prefers to focus more on its processors, especially with 3 nm engraving.
Here is what Kuo says:
The slowdown in processor upgrades is hurting sales of end products (such as the A16 and M2 chips). Therefore, to ensure that the world’s most advanced 3nm processors can enter mass production smoothly in 2023-2025, and the performance upgrade and power consumption improvement power can improve significantly over predecessors, Apple has devoted most of its IC design resources to developing the processors. Insufficient development resources have delayed mass production of Apple’s own 5G modem, not to mention the Wi-Fi chip, which has less strategic value. In other words, the visibility of Apple’s Wi-Fi chip development is even lower than that of its own 5G modem.
Thus, Apple will always rely on Broadcom for Wi-Fi chips for the iPhone 15 and even the models that will follow within the next few years. The analyst confirms in passing that the iPhone 15 will support Wi-Fi 6E.
