iPhone 17 series will debut Apple's homegrown Wi-Fi 7 chip
According to a tweet written by TF International's Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will reduce its reliance on Wi-Fi + Bluetooth chips designed by Broadcom starting with the iPhone 17 line. Kuo tells us that Broadcom ships 300 million such chips to Apple each year and this number will be greatly reduced as Apple plans on using its own Wi-Fi chips on the iPhone 17 series. Using its own Wi-Fi chip will allow Apple to reduce costs and integrate new features into the phones.
The homegrown Apple Wi-Fi chips will be built by TSMC using its N7 7nm process node and will support the most up-to-date Wi-Fi 7 standards. Kuo says that Apple expects to move all of its products over to the new homegrown Wi-Fi chip over the next three years. One Apple product that probably won't be getting the new Apple Wi-Fi + Bluetooth chip is Apple's $19 polishing cloth.
In addition to launching its own Wi-Fi + Bluetooth chip on next year's iPhone 17 line, Apple's own 5G modem is also expected to replace the Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G modem beginning on the iPhone SE 4 which could be released during the first quarter of 2025. You might recall that looking to get away from Qualcomm's ridiculous "no license, no chips" policy, Apple and Qualcomm went on a lawsuit spree and Apple tried to get Intel to build it a reliable 5G modem which it could not do.
TF International's Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple will debut its homegrown Wi-Fi 7 chips with the iPhone 17 line. | Image credit-X
Apple ended up tossing Qualcomm huge sacks of cash to license Qualcomm's 5G modem which Apple engineers admitted worked the best. But not wanting to be tied to Qualcomm forever, Apple uncharacteristically spent $1 billion to buy most of Intel's smartphone modem business in 2019, and after surviving through some hiccups along the way, Apple will finally debut its own 5G modem chip next year with the iPhone SE 4.
Even though Apple and Qualcomm signed on the dotted line again last year to keep Apple up to its eyeballs with Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G modems through 2026, Apple will be happy to move away from Qualcomm's Snapdragon 5G modems. Just as Kuo mentioned the advantages Apple will have using its own Wi-Fi 7 chip for the iPhone 17 line, using its homegrown 5G modem will save Apple some money.
While Apple's modem will only debut on one model, the iPhone SE 4, depending on well it performs on the "budget model" next year, Apple will soon include it on all new flagship iPhone models possibly starting with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in 2026.
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