At its new product launch in the fall of 2019, Apple did not launch an iPhone that supports 5G networks. The most fundamental reason is that Apple lacks relevant 5G baseband support, even though Apple has paid dozens of After a settlement of US$100 million was given to Qualcomm, Apple still spent 1 billion yuan to acquire Intel's 5G baseband business. This means that Apple wants to use Intel's 5G chip R&D team to make up for its own shortcomings. This also This means that Apple may no longer have any business dealings with Qualcomm.
But now, according to relevant sources, Cook may be in trouble again. In the case of Apple’s previous $1 billion acquisition of Intel’s baseband business, Apple did not directly report it to Chinese regulators. Operators concentrated declaration, so now the domestic State Administration for Market Regulation has begun to ask relevant opinions from terminal companies in the industry, which has attracted everyone's attention, which means that Apple is likely to be subject to an "anti-monopoly" investigation.
In fact, Apple has just encountered the crisis of the "HKmap.live map application" and was criticized by the People's Daily, especially during a "controversial period". Although Cook He also quickly responded: "Calling that removing the App is the "best protection" for users." However, Apple's reputation in the domestic market has suffered a certain blow.
Why do you say that? In fact, Apple has always maintained a good cooperative relationship with Qualcomm, but in the end the two parties parted ways. According to both parties, it was all because of patent fees. Apple believed that the patent fees charged by Qualcomm were too expensive and extremely unreasonable. Qualcomm believes that Apple defaults on its patent fees. But with the advent of the 5G era, Apple began to panic. According to industry insiders, because Intel 5G baseband chips were difficult to produce, Apple once asked Samsung to purchase 5G baseband chips.
However, due to Samsung’s limited baseband chip production capacity, it also directly rejected Apple. Now Apple has also directly acquired Intel’s 5G baseband chip R&D department. This is definitely the best choice for Apple. On the one hand, after acquiring 618 5G standard essential patents owned by Intel, Apple also owns 15 5G standard essential patent families, which means that after this acquisition, Apple’s ranking of 5G patents will also be It will enter the top ten in the world; more importantly, there are 2,200 Intel employees and 17,000 wireless technology patents, which will greatly enhance Apple’s competitiveness in the 5G field.