Apple’s iPhones are powered by in-house processors. Up until the iPhone 7, they Additionally used Imagination’s PowerVR GPU before switching to their own in-house GPU starting with the iPhone 8. That shift put Imagination Technologies out of business as Apple was their major client. Now Apple’s upcoming shift is to ditch third-party modems and develop its own and recent hirings further confirm that plan.
According to Apple Insider, Apple put up a job listing at the beginning of December for a cellular systems architect in San Diego. For those who don’t know, San Diego is the headquarters of Qualcomm, a chip and modem company that has a several scores to settle with Apple with respect to patent infringement.
The job listing is one of plenty of in the past some several years that confirm Apple is developing its own cellular modem that will power its smartphones. Back in 2014, Apple employed a minimum of 30 employees who had worked for Qualcomm and Broadcom. It also hired a former VP of Qualcomm who currently heads their cpu department and another executive titled Bernd Adler, who worked for Intel’s modem team.
According to the source, Apple’s cellular modem is still a number of years in launch, so we shouldn’t be expecting to see it anytime soon.