Apple Reportedly Snatched Intel's Top 5G Developer Before Qualcomm Settlement
According to The Telegraph Sunday, a leaked email reveals that Apple poached Umashankar Thyagarajan, Intel’s lead developer of 5G technology, mere weeks before the iPhone maker settled the royalties legal battle with Qualcomm. Thyagarajan now is an "architectuer at Apple," as listed on his Linkedin profile.
Apple Starts Building Its Own Modems
According to previous reports, Intel is working on its own wireless modem chips, after years of conflict with Qualcomm that ultimately resulted in Apple suing Qualcomm over its abuse of patents to charge excessively high royalties.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Apple was also previously in talks to pay Intel several billion dollars for its 5G division, but as it seems Intel refused or the negotiations broke down.
With Intel seemingly unable to finish its 5G modem in time for the 2021 iPhone, it seemed Apple had no choice but to settle with Qualcomm and start hiring 5G modem engineers, including ones from Intel. Intel and Apple were still 5G partners when Apple hired Thyagarajan in February.
Apple Relied Too Much On Intel
The 5G situation may be a lesson for Apple. After years of regretting that it couldn’t convince Apple to use its Atom chips in iPhones and iPads, Intel finally got its chance to sell Apple a chip that would be in hundreds of millions of iOS devices -- and then that opportunity was completely wasted.
Apple completely broke ties with Qualcomm, its exclusive modem supplier until then, when it switched to Intel. Later, Apple was willing to use an Intel chip with significantly lower performance and efficiency compared to Qualcomm’s solutions. Meanwhile, competitors adopted Qualcomm’s 5G chips. However, Intel couldn’t even deliver on this schedule, giving Apple no option but to cancel its contract with Intel and settle with its recent industry enemy, Qualcomm.
Intel tried to put the blame on exiting the 5G business on Apple’s settlement with Qualcomm. However, it seems unlikely that Intel would’ve had a real modem business to begin with if not for Apple giving it an exclusive iPhone deal for the past two years.
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Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
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mihen I think this just shows you shouldn't do business with Apple. As soon as they drop you as a supplier they sue you. When Apple realized they won't have a 5G phone for 2 years they settled.Reply -
Co BIY Maybe canceling the 5g modems frees up some 10nm fab time for the chips PC enthusiasts really want out of Intel. It seems like sometimes when the tech market is hot there really isn't competition and everyone can sell everything they can build. More market demand than total capacity.Reply -
Co BIY Reply
Maybe Intel thought they were safer bailing out on their contracts than selling at a price Apple could later decide was too high for the "richest company in the world of all time."mlee 2500 said:Partnering with Apple sure doesn't appear to ultimately work out for anyone. -
jasonelmore Apple wouldn't offer Intel enough money for their modems for it to be a profitable endeavor. I believe Intel could have pulled this off had they offered Intel more money per modem. Intel has the patent portfolio to pull 5G off, not to mention some of the worlds smartest engineers, but Apple overplayed it's hand when they demanded tight schedules and small royalty payments. Instead of paying Intel what their modems were worth, Apple is now paying Qualcomm 2-3 times what their modems are worth.Reply -
mlee 2500 Replyjasonelmore said:Apple wouldn't offer Intel enough money for their modems for it to be a profitable endeavor. I believe Intel could have pulled this off had they offered Intel more money per modem. Intel has the patent portfolio to pull 5G off, not to mention some of the worlds smartest engineers, but Apple overplayed it's hand when they demanded tight schedules and small royalty payments. Instead of paying Intel what their modems were worth, Apple is now paying Qualcomm 2-3 times what their modems are worth.
Actually, they appear to be paying Qualcomm EXACTLY what their modems are worth. Which was the whole issue for a company (Apple) used to bullying and leveraging their suppliers to the point where their profit margin almost disappears.