Perhaps, Apple also wants to change this situation and has begun to develop its own baseband. At an investor event held in Qualcomm last year, Akash Palkhiwala, Qualcomm's chief financial officer, said that it is estimated that only 20% of the baseband chips needed by Apple's iPhone will be available in 2023. This can be said to confirm that Apple will independently develop the 5G baseband, thus realizing the comprehensive self-research of the processor and communication baseband. Can Apple's self-developed baseband really replace Qualcomm to solve the iPhone signal problem?
Baseband, the pain that Apple can't avoid.
To answer this question, we should start with what is baseband. The most important function of mobile phone is communication. Both 4G and 5G are communication functions, whether it is telephone, short message in the era of function machine or surfing the Internet in the era of smart machine. The function of baseband here is to synthesize and decode these signals. So for a mobile phone, baseband is a very basic functional component.
In the mobile phone chip market, there is a well-deserved overlord, and that is Qualcomm. There are a large number of communication patents in hand, which creates many barriers for many mobile phone companies. If you use Qualcomm's communication baseband, you have to pay the corresponding chip fee and the patent fee charged according to the price of the mobile phone. For enterprises with technology, such as Huawei and Samsung, they naturally choose to independently research and develop baseband, while for enterprises without corresponding capabilities, they can only choose to use Qualcomm's baseband for a fee.
Faced with higher and higher patent fees, Apple naturally chose to consider the cost. So Apple finally gave up Qualcomm and replaced it with Intel's baseband. Of course, at that time, the signal of iPhone had been criticized by many users, but it was better than what we saw later.
However, the stretching performance of Intel baseband finally detonated the signal gate of iPhone. The iPhone XS and iPhone XR with Intel baseband are deeply trapped in the signal gate, and the reputation of the iPhone is also completely "collapsed". Including the later iPhone 1 1, the signal is still unsatisfactory.
By the time of iPhone 12, the development and production of Intel baseband were seriously affected because the chip manufacturing process was not only a signal span problem, but also the mass production time could not be guaranteed. Finally, Apple reconciled with Qualcomm and returned to Qualcomm baseband to ensure the normal listing of iPhone 12.
Rough: The Road of Apple Baseband Self-research
It can be said that Apple's self-developed baseband is an inevitable structure. In fact, we can see that Apple has long planned its own baseband. As early as the end of 20 19, Apple acquired Intel's baseband team, which made a solid step for its baseband research. But is the self-developed baseband really that simple? In the chip industry, many companies have tried baseband research, such as Texas Instruments, Marvell and NVIDIA. However, few people really have independent intellectual property rights and mature products. This involves two main aspects.
First of all, in terms of patents, as we all know, communication patents are basically concentrated in the hands of a few communication companies, such as Qualcomm, Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia. This is the basis of self-developed baseband. If there is no relevant patent, even if the baseband is developed by ourselves, the annual patent licensing fee is not a small expense.
In addition, independent research and development of baseband needs to accumulate R&D experience in many communication fields. Compared with a communication company like Huawei, Apple really has a long way to go. Of course, the acquisition of Intel baseband team can indeed save Apple a lot of technical accumulation, but the performance of Intel baseband stretching is very doubtful. How much help can the acquisition bring to Apple?
Can the self-developed baseband improve the signal performance of iPhone?
Back to the original question, can Apple really solve the iPhone signal problem by developing the base tape? Let's take a look at the performance of iPhone 12 and iPhone 13. Although Qualcomm's baseband has been switched, and Qualcomm's baseband has a very stable performance on many Android phones, from the current situation, the signal performance of both Qualcomm's X55 baseband iPhone 12 and Qualcomm's X60 baseband iPhone 13 is relatively mediocre. This brings another question, besides baseband, whether the antenna design of iPhone is also one of the root causes of its signal problems.
Of course, for Apple, self-research solves not only the signal problem, but also a series of problems. The first is the cost. Take the cost of iPhone 12 BOM reported on the Internet as an example. The cost of its A 14 processor is only about 40 dollars, while the cost of X55 baseband is about 90 dollars. It can be seen that baseband accounts for a very high proportion in the cost of iPhone. Apple's self-developed baseband means that it can further reduce costs and improve product profitability.
At the same time, for Apple, self-developed baseband also means that Apple can completely develop products according to its own requirements, thus ensuring that the iPhone can better adapt from baseband, antenna and appearance, but it can have the opportunity to solve any legacy problems that may affect the signal more thoroughly, such as the possible antenna design problems mentioned above.
Of course, for companies like Apple, it is best to enhance the iPhone experience through self-developed base tapes. I believe the result is positive. Just like Huawei Hisilicon, it took less than ten years to get from K3V2 to Kirin 9000. I believe that Apple will not spend too long on the road of self-developed baseband.
There is no doubt that this year's iPhone 14 will still be Qualcomm baseband, but next year's iPhone 15, we will see Apple's self-developed baseband, and what kind of answer will Apple finally hand over, I think we will wait and see.