Apple is expected to use its own modem chip by 2025, Qualcomm will have to face competition from Huawei: Ming-Chi Kuo
Apple is expected to use its own 5G modem chip in iPhone models starting in 2025, according to reports. According to TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a fairly good track record of predicting Apple hardware development, the company could reduce its reliance on other companies for components, including Qualcomm. The chipmaker will also likely face competition from Huawei after the phone maker unveiled new phones with the home-grown Kirin 9000S and other Kirin chips that are expected to make their way into phones in 2024.
In a Medium post, Kuo predicts that starting in 2024, Qualcomm could not only lose Huawei’s orders for chips entirely, but also see a decline in shipments to other Chinese smartphone makers. Last year, the phone manufacturer bought up to 42 million chips from Qualcomm – in 2022, according to the analyst, there will be as many as 25 million. To preserve its market share in China, the company is expected to launch a price war by the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Kuo.
Aside from Huawei, Qualcomm will also be affected by the possibility of Samsung using its own Exynos 2400 chipset in its phones in 2024, Kuo claims. There are also rumors that Apple will use its own modem chip for its iPhone models and this change could happen by 2025, explains the analyst.
This isn’t the first time Apple has been tipped to switch to a proprietary Apple 5G modem. In April, Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu claimed that the Cupertino company had resumed development of the fourth-generation iPhone SE, which would feature Apple’s rumored in-house 5G modem chip.
Earlier this year, Kuo also predicted the launch of an iPhone SE model next year with a 5G chip developed by the iPhone maker, tweeting that “the significant decline in Apple orders from Qualcomm in the foreseeable future is a foregone conclusion.”
At the time, the analyst had claimed that the rumored iPhone SE 4 would arrive in 2024 with Apple’s 5G baseband chip manufactured using the 4nm process. Kuo later updated his prediction, adjusting Pu’s claim that the company’s own 5G modem could launch on an iPhone in 2025.
