Apple may be preparing to equip its next-gen iPhone with a baseband chip from Qualcomm, rather than Infineon.
As Josh Ong of AppleInsider notes, a move away from the Intel-owned Infineon would “break with precedent,” as the company (before it was purchased by Intel) supplied Apple with a baseband chip for the iPad 3G and all iPhone models since 2007.
“A Qualcomm broadband chip would match rumors that Apple is developing a CDMA iPhone. [Remember], Qualcomm invented the now widely-used CDMA technology,” wrote Ong.
“[And] a cryptic ‘iPhone developer guru’ job posting on the Qualcomm website in August claimed that respondents would work on ‘the most challenging product’ of their lives.”
Meanwhile, Motley Fool analyst Manikandan Raman opined that a switch to Qualcomm by Club Cupertino would undoubtedly be a sensible move.
“In light of the Intel-Infineon deal, Apple may want to diversify its supplier base to reduce dependency on a single supplier,” explained Raman.
Barclays Capital analyst Andrew Gardiner expressed similar sentiments.
“With a dominant 69 percent share of the CDMA mobile phone chipset market, Qualcomm would be the ‘logical choice’ to help Apple expand to other networks.
“[And, of course,] Infineon’s wireless unit doesn’t [currently] offer chips for CDMA technology.”
