With Apple Getting Into Modems, It Needs to Remember the iPhone 4
Apple’s long-rumored work on a wireless modem finally appears to be coming to a head. one new report Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said earlier this month that next spring Rumored iPhone SE update The launch of the first Apple-designed wireless modem is a noteworthy recent departure from the company’s chips from Qualcomm, the current leader in the cellular modem industry.
Gurman said Apple will gradually increase its modem ambitions. The hardware will appear in the more affordable iPhone SE next year, iPhone 17 “ultra-thin” and some entry-level iPads that connect to cellular networks.
He said the first generation modems were not as “advanced” as the first generation modems. Qualcomm chip On today’s flagship iPhone 16 series And can’t handle higher-frequency 5G spectrum like millimeter wave, which Verizon and AT&T have deployed in parts of major cities, airports and stadiums for ultra-high-speed connections.
The modem is also said to be limited to four-channel carrier aggregation, a step down from Qualcomm’s latest chips. Carrier aggregation allows multiple wireless spectrum bands to be combined to increase data speeds. While Apple’s original modem may not be as fast as Qualcomm’s latest modem, Gurman said it achieved “download speeds of about 4 gigabytes per second” in lab tests.
While the real world is very different from controlled lab experiments, if Apple can consistently provide a fraction of the bandwidth, it should be fine for most people’s daily use of streaming, messaging, video calling, and social media sharing .
While Apple is said to be launching higher-end modems in 2026 and 2027 that could outperform Qualcomm’s future chips, Apple is still hoping to get its modems out of the box. You just have to look back at 2010 iPhone 4 “Antennagate” See what a messed up connection can do.
a cautionary tale
Steve Jobs called the situation “antennagate,” but said the loss of signal caused by holding an iPhone 4 in his hand was “not unique” compared to other smartphones.
this iPhone 4 This is Apple’s first major redesign of the iPhone, featuring a new antenna design with cutouts on the sides of the phone that allow the company to turn the phone’s stainless steel band into part of the antenna for Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and more, of course , and cellular connectivity.
Users quickly discovered that the problem is that if you hold your phone without a protective case, it can easily interfere with the signal. this leading to a press conferenceone open lettersoftware update to fix how cellular signal strength is displayed, lawsuits, free cases, and eventually reached a settlement.
although leaked when it was mistakenly left in a bar Apple’s famous secrecy may have limited public testing of the iPhone 4 in the months leading up to its release. Leaks suggest Apple is testing its phone in a case that mimics the look of the iPhone 3G or 3GS. Ultimately, using a protective case helps solve the “antennagate” problem, which mainly occurs when users use their phones without a protective case.
one 2010 Bloomberg reportHowever, it is suggested that at least one Apple engineer raised concerns about the design with management.
This legend is a Apple dark circles But obviously this has not slowed down the rapid rise of the iPhone. By then iPhone 4S The antenna issue has been resolved, and today’s iPhones still retain cutouts on the sides of the phone and work without any cellular connectivity issues (small cutouts for antennas on the sides of the device are also common on Samsung, Google, and Android phones. others).
Gurman said that “Apple has been secretly testing the new modem on hundreds of devices deployed to employees around the world” and “conducting quality assurance testing with carrier partners around the world.” is good news.
Anshel said: “There is always risk in introducing a new chip, especially one that controls so much of the experience, which is why I always thought they would launch the first generation chip on a cheaper, less risky device like the iPhone SE or iPad Mini. .” said Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.
He noted that by taking this approach, Apple can “bring the modem into the real world and eliminate any bugs that exist without jeopardizing the profitability of its mainline iPhone business.”
Avi Greengart, president and principal analyst at Techsponential, seems to agree.
“Apple (and Intel before it) have been working on this for a long time, but Qualcomm and MediaTek now have a significant lead in 5G modem performance, and that gap is likely to widen,” he said.
“Nevertheless, Apple’s own modems may be ‘good enough’ for its non-flagship phones, iPads, and MacBooks. Apple may want to stick with Qualcomm modems for longer on its higher-end products, especially on phones,” Areas and urban canyons where reception is poor are critical to the user experience.”
Hopefully this means users won’t have to relive Apple’s past failures when new modems and new devices are launched.
