20 19 September, iPhone 1 1 came out. As in the past, Apple is still at the back of the network technology team and is not equipped with 5G chips.
Cook explained:
There seems to be nothing wrong with Apple's judgment that it is extremely pursuing profits. 5G smartphones didn't start selling until a year later. Apple iPhone 1 1 series has been selling well since its release. Recently, due to the shortage of chips, there are weak signs of decline, and it has won the sales champion of various platforms for several months in a row.
But all this did not stop Apple's decline until the emergence of the iPhone 12 series.
After 20 17, 10 ~ 12 set the highest sales record, the sales of iPhone series have been declining. However, with the release of iPhone 12, this situation has been greatly reversed.
In the first fiscal quarter report of 20021fiscal year released by Apple, the revenue of Greater China alone reached $2131300 million, an increase of 57% over the same period last year.
At the earnings conference, Cook said that there are more than 654.38+65 billion Apple devices used worldwide and more than 654.38+65 billion active iPhones installed. The upgrade of iPhone has set a record in China.
At this point, Apple has changed its strategy:
Compared with Qualcomm, Samsung and Huawei, which have been laid out in advance, Apple ranks behind the team again. But this time, unlike the past, Apple wants to use its own strength to get rid of the "network problem" that has been bothering for a long time.
3G network was deployed in 200 1 year, but iPhone did not support 3G after 6 years. In 2009, the first batch of 4G service providers began testing, and the appearance of iPhone5 was three years late;
This time, although Cook did his homework on iPhone 1 1, he launched the 5G iPhone 12 a year later.
Apple's lateness on the Internet is not entirely out of strategy, but a "soft rib".
In April, Apple announced its financial report for the second quarter of fiscal year 20021year ending March 27th. Among them, the net profit was $23.63 billion, an increase of1124.9 billion compared with the same period of last year, which was higher than the market expectation of 1 10%.
It is no exaggeration to say that it is one of the most profitable companies in the world. But even with deep pockets, I still can't get rid of this "soft rib". American giant Intel abandoned the research and development of 5G baseband chips, and the R&D team and results were packaged and sold to Apple. However, apart from saving money, Apple still can't get rid of the technical difficulties and protocol barriers of baseband chips in a short time.
At present, Huawei is probably the only company in the world that can formulate communication technology standard protocols and support core high-performance baseband chips. In order to get rid of Qualcomm, Apple also tried many methods.
1. Qualcomm struggled with patent fees for many years, and reached a six-year cooperation memorandum on April 20 19.
2. After the 2.iPhone 7 series, Intel was introduced as a supplier, and Intel and Qualcomm baseband were mixed. Later, Qualcomm was completely abandoned. However, the performance of Intel baseband made the later iPhone series criticized, and Apple returned to Qualcomm baseband.
Now it seems that the reason why iPhone 1 1 series didn't catch the 5G shuttle bus is not entirely the "5G uselessness theory" in their mouth. There is another possibility: Apple can't get the 5G baseband chip at all.
Although Qualcomm's baseband chip is used, the signal problem has not been significantly improved. Shortly after the sale of iPhone 12 series products, a large number of consumers reported the poor signal of social platforms such as Apple Community and Post Bar, and even had to restart to restore their functions.
All the manufacturers in the world want to own baseband products with independent property rights, and they have made many attempts, but I'm afraid it's the last time that they planted them: Texas Instruments, Marvell, NVIDIA, Freescale, Broadcom, ADI ... These chip giants, developing chips is like drinking soup, but they have suffered a lot in baseband.
As early as 20 19, Apple has acquired the baseband business of Intel smartphones, which will not be commercialized until 2023?
Main difficulties:
First, the centralization of patented technology makes it difficult for Apple to achieve a breakthrough in a short time;
Apple wants to engage in 5G communication baseband, which is not difficult from the perspective of research and development, but if it wants to be commercialized, it must be compatible with 4G, 3G or even 2G networks.
The patents of these communication protocols are in the hands of communication operators such as Qualcomm, Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia. If you want to do it, you must reach some kind of agreement (patent authorization, etc.). ) and communication operators.
This is not an easy task. Huawei can do it easily because it has enough patents to achieve cross-border. On the other hand, Apple, which has sued Qualcomm for many years, obviously does not have this family background (the acquired Intel resources are not the same as those of Qualcomm and Huawei).
Second, the compatibility of equipment;
"Use" and "doing" are two different things.
Apple's baseband has been provided by Qualcomm and Intel. Just use it. Good or bad is another matter. Once you want to do self-research, you should consider issues such as base station equipment.
An iPhone will be used in hundreds of countries, and there may be more than a dozen network operators. How to be compatible and how to adapt requires Apple to consider and invest one by one.
Third, experience accumulation and environmental problems;
Smart phones are different from early wired phones, and mobile phones are connected and transmitted with different base stations in the process of moving. In the process of moving, even in different environments, the required loading power is different, and the adjustment of products requires a lot of actual commercial data, which Apple lacks a lot.
Qualcomm has a lot of basic data, whether it is 2/3/4G or the current 5G communication patent, it is the result of its efforts in the field of mobile communication for more than ten years.
This is especially true for Huawei. From the establishment of 1987 to the present, we can imagine Huawei's experience and technology accumulation in the communication field.
As the world's leading chip giant, Apple is obviously tired of endless wrestling with Qualcomm; For Apple, which pursues high profits, the lack of baseband chips has also seriously affected revenue.
The signal problem has plagued Apple users for more than ten years, and it has not been solved perfectly, which is largely a baseband problem. Whether Apple, whose control cost has reached "obsession", can solve the signal problem perfectly through the self-developed 5G baseband chip still depends on Apple's attention to this "core component".
I also hope that Apple will be a "fool" and completely cure the "signal disease" of its own products at no cost.
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