2023-09-21 04:44:00
Apple was forced to renew its contract with Qualcomm to supply modems for the iPhone after company’s proprietary modem project “fails”. The information was confirmed to the Wall Street Journal by several engineers who worked on the project.
According to these employees, the project was already “born wrong”, as Apple pursued unrealistic goals and had a “poor understanding” of the challenges.
This resulted in completely unusable prototypes that were the size of the iPhone board and overheated.
Apple planned to have its modem chip ready for use in new iPhone models. But tests late last year found the chip was too slow and prone to overheating. Its circuit board was so large that it took up half of an iPhone, making it unusable.
Teams were isolated into separate groups in the US and abroad without a global leader. Some managers discouraged the dissemination of bad news about engineering delays or setbacks, leading to unrealistic goals and missed deadlines.
In addition to internal communication problems, the team that worked on the project also confirmed that Apple underestimated the size of the challenge of designing a modem. This is because the company’s ability to develop its own microprocessors made executives think that creating a modem was a simple task.
Just because Apple builds the best chip on the planet, it’s ridiculous to think they could also build a modem – said former Apple wireless director Jaydeep Ranade.
With the failed tests at the end of last year, Apple also noted that its chips were “three years behind” Qualcomm’s best modem. As a result, using them would be a “suicide” mission, since the iPhone 15 could have the worst connectivity performance.
For these former executives interviewed by the WSJ, the most optimistic forecast is that Apple will have an efficient 5G modem in mid-2025. But, to achieve this, the company needs to improve its development process.
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