Although it’s rare these days, some previous Android models had radio reception. However, the iPhone never had this feature, despite having the ability to receive FM radio waves.
The YouTube channel “ Apple Explained ”, which is familiar with Apple, explains why the FM radio function was not installed on the iPhone.
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Why is there no radio function on the iPhone?
In fact, the iPhone 7 and earlier models had an FM radio tuner. However, this was not intentionally included by Apple.
The wireless LAN and Bluetooth chipsets used in previous iPhones were purchased from Broadcom, not designed by Apple itself. And that manufacturer included a radio tuner in the chipset by default.
For Apple, it was cheaper to use it as is.
In order for the FM radio tuner to work, an additional FM circuit is required. However, Apple did not support an FM radio tuner, even though it had one.
In fact, it has been confirmed from the circuit diagram of the iPhone that the circuit was not added.
Why would Apple do such a thing? Apple might have easily turned on the FM tuner and listened to the radio.
This decision shows how selective Apple is when it comes to adding features to its products. Apple manufactures products with the idea of ”why should I do it” rather than “what can I do”.
And because of that thinking, the radio has been left out of all iOS products.
Apple felt that the convenience of FM radio was not up to Apple’s standards. For example, the availability of radio stations depends on where the user is. So even if you have a favorite local radio station, when you move to another city, you won’t be able to access it.
Also, if you go to rural areas, the reception of radio waves will be unstable. Moreover, the average radio quality is only 128kB/s per second. This is regarding half of Apple Music’s 256kB/s.
Finally, radio stations have long advertisements. Apple didn’t like ads they didn’t get their share of. And users don’t like ads because they just want to listen to music. In short, FM radio doesn’t give Apple and users enough benefits.
That’s why Apple not only didn’t support the FM tuner in the early iPhones, but completely ditched it from the iPhone 7 onwards.
In addition, FM/AM radio that is distributed online can also be heard from the app, so there is no longer a need to install a radio function on the iPhone.