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Apple recently extended its deal for Qualcomm modems despite years of effort to develop its own \u2014 now we know why. According to a detailed report from the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>, Apple\u2019s attempt to develop its own in-house 5G modem has been stymied by issues resulting from the iPhone maker underestimating the complexity and technical challenges of the task, and a lack of global leadership to guide the separate development groups siloed in the US and abroad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Apple\u2019s motivation to develop its own modems is reportedly two-fold. First, developing its own silicon had helped improve device performance and increase profit margins. Second, the company wanted to break from Qualcomm, which Apple\u00a0sued in 2017 over excessive patent fees<\/a>. \u201cThey hate Qualcomm\u2019s living guts,\u201d says Edward Snyder, a wireless industry expert and managing director of Charter Equity Research, in comments reported by the WSJ<\/em>. After settling its dispute with Qualcomm in 2019<\/a>, Apple quickly\u00a0acquired Intel\u2019s smartphone modem business<\/a>, along with a few thousand engineers to help advance its development efforts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Three years behind Qualcomm\u2019s best modem chip<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But building a 5G wireless modem that also worked well on the myriad of 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless frequencies in use around the world turned out to be much trickier than expected, and the effort has been plagued by unrealistic goals and deadlines, reports the\u00a0WSJ<\/em>. The prototype chips Apple tested last year were slow, \u201cessentially three years behind Qualcomm\u2019s best modem chip.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s my favorite sentence from the WSJ<\/em> report:\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Apple found that employing the brute force of thousands of engineers, a strategy successful for designing the computer brain of its smartphones and laptops, wasn\u2019t enough to quickly produce a superior modem chip.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n So instead of introducing custom Apple modems in this year\u2019s iPhone as originally planned, Apple execs had to push plans back to 2024 models, until they realized that goal wasn\u2019t possible either. That\u2019s why Apple extended its modem deal with Qualcomm<\/a> \u2014 which would have expired at the end of this year \u2014 just days before the iPhone 15 was announced.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And while some have lauded Huawei\u2019s HiSilicon chip design business for beating Apple to the punch with the apparent development of its own 5G modem<\/a> in China\u2019s Mate 60 Pro, lab tests show<\/a> that Huawei\u2019s chips consume more power than competitors\u2019 and cause the phone \u201cto heat up\u201d which is bad for performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So yeah, modems are hard<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Apple\u2019s custom modem work continues, and Bloomberg<\/em>\u2019s Mark Gurman<\/a>\u00a0suggests we\u2019ll likely see them gradually roll out before the current Qualcomm deal expires in 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n