Qualcomm isn’t Worried About the Apple Modem

Just like how Intel wasn’t worried about M1, Qualcomm says it isn’t worried about the Apple modem at all.

Things Heat up in the Modem World as Qualcomm Publicly Says it’s Not Bothered by Apple’s Work with C1

Apple has a very interesting way of doing things. When it realizes its part suppliers aren’t giving them what they need to delver a very specific experience, the company just makes the part itself.

One of the finest examples of this is Apple’s first-ever SoC for the Mac, the M1. The moment Intel’s chip went out, great battery life, improved performance, and AI experiences came right in.

Apple is doing it again by making its own cellular modem for its devices.

Before I move forward, I want to make it clear that Apple’s foray into the world of modems is filled with lawsuits against Qualcomm, and it even involves an awful modem which Intel made for the iPhone.

While that Intel modem didn’t do wonders for Apple, in fact it was a bad chip, the company went ahead and bought the division in 2019, and what you see today in C1 is the result of that investment.

The C1 is a very real thing. It lives inside the iPhone 16e you’re planning to buy. Reviews even say the modem works just fine compared to Qualcomm’s found in other iPhones. That instantly means the C1 is on par with an existing product from Qualcomm, and no-one saw that coming.

Apple has clearly done its homework to deliver the experience that matters. And it doesn’t involve blistering fast speeds by draining the battery down to the last bar in the name of performance.

In fact, in some cases, the Apple modem performs better thanks to efficiency. This is due to the fact that Apple’s A18 chip in the 16e and C1 talk to each other to prioritize important cellular tasks and give more airtime to stuff that is currently being worked on.

Though that sounds like an ‘illusion’ of speed, what it means for the user is simple: when you send a message, that message gets priority, not that photo being backed up in the background when the network is poor.

Fast forward to this day, and Qualcomm just announced its brand-new X85 modem and says it’s not worried about Apple’s C1 and the company’s future work at all. In fact, Qualcomm says the X85 is going to create a huge difference in performance between top-end Android phones and iOS devices.

The full statement by Qualcomm’s CEO is as follows, as per CNBC:

What that will do will set a huge delta between the performance of premium Android devices, and iOS devices, when you compare what Qualcomm can do versus what Apple is doing

The fact that Qualcomm is aiming for ‘premium’ Android devices only, and Apple is going to deliver its experience across the board on all of its devices, is a very silent self-own for Qualcomm.

The entire lawsuit between Qualcomm and Apple happened because the modem and chipmaker was charging too much money for its modems. Ultimately, a settlement was reached, but Apple’s C1 clearly shows how the relationship went after that.

I still remember when people started comparing M1 to extremely high-end Intel and AMD chips at the time and forgot about performance-per-watt and efficiency completely. The goal at the time was to show how each and every single benchmark mattered.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger at the time said they will win back Apple as a customer. Since then, even Microsoft started its transition to ARM chips for efficiency and better experiences as well.

This trend is not going to stop.

I won’t be surprised at all when companies like Samsung also start dropping modems from Qualcomm for more efficient in-house solutions in the near future too.

I’m going to wrap this up by saying the next couple of years are going to be interesting. While Qualcomm will focus on benchmarks and how many gigabits its chip is able to pull from a cell tower, Apple will talk about big battery life and efficiency.

It’s very easy to tell which one a customer wants at the end of the day. I know exactly why I started buying Apple silicon Macs and never looked back at Intel. It’s not the speed, but the hardware and software working together to create the best experiences ever.