According to CLSA Securities analyst, Intel will be supplying Apple with nearly 30-40% of the total LTE modems that will be used inside the iPhone 7. The analyst citing “Asian supply chain checks” that Intel has managed to secure a “significant portion” of the LTE modems required by Apple for the iPhone 7.
Qualcomm will still remain the primary supplier of LTE modems for Apple, though it will see its share drop from 100 percent to around 60 percent. The move will negatively effect Qualcomm’s revenue, which is estimated to be about 4 percent. The company has been exclusively supplying modems to Apple for the iPhone since the last three years.
Previous reports have also indicated that Intel was working hard on readying its LTE modem chips for use in the iPhone 7. The company’s XM 7360 baseband, which is expected to show up inside the iPhone 7, supports LTE Cat. for a maximum download speed of 450Mbps and upload speeds of 100Mbps. The current generation iPhone feature a Qualcomm modem that support download and upload speeds of 300Mbps and 50Mbps.
Qualcomm has a monopoly in the LTE modem market, so it will really be surprising and shocking if Intel manages to supply Apple almost 40 percent of the LTE modems for the iPhone 7. While Intel modems have been used in some Android smartphones before, the company has never really come even remotely close to challenge Qualcomm’s monopoly in the baseband market.
