Recent rumors suggest that Apple has given up on developing its own 5G modem, meaning the giant will remain beholden to Qualcomm for several years. Subsequently, Johny Srouji, the company's senior vice president of hardware technology, sat down with reporters in the latest interview and hinted that Apple is still investing heavily in the research and development of cellular modems, suggesting that development is still in the early stages, but did not talk about the obvious development obstacles on the way forward, nor did it provide a launch timetable or other details for 5G modems.
In the latest CNBC interview, Apple allowed cameras to film its labs where the labs responsible for developing and testing the latest M3 chipset were interviewed, including one that left Apple executives Johny Srouji and John Ternus facing some tough questions about the tech giant's future plans. When asked if Apple wants to control all of its chips, Srouji responded that Apple wants to make the best products on the planet and if sourcing from third-party suppliers meets their standards, then they will always adhere to that approach.
Apple's engineers seem to be in huge trouble when it comes to developing their own 5G modems, and the cracks in their armor are finally showing, showing that developing a custom "system on a chip" is completely different from developing a 5G modem in-house. Apple is expected to launch its first custom solution as early as late 2025 or early 2026, which is why Apple recently renewed its 5G modem licensing agreement with Qualcomm.
So far, the basebands developed by Apple are far from the capabilities of Qualcomm's 5G modems, and Apple's team has continued to receive reports of overheating and substandard performance. Even if Apple somehow gets over this development hurdle, these 5G modems are only expected to appear in iPhones and not other products like iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches, where Apple will once again rely on Qualcomm.
From the interview, Johny Srouji was clearly unwilling to admit that Apple's 5G modem efforts had not yielded any results, but when the executive joined the California-based trillion-dollar giant in 2008 to work on the A4 chip, his vision was to build its own chips for all Apple products. Although he encountered some major setbacks along the way, Srouji's words in the interview highlighted his determination to achieve his set goals.