Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reports that Apple has been developing a 6G cellular modem. According to Gurman’s Power On newsletter, Apple is actively recruiting engineers to consider 6G while developing its first 5G modem.
Apple is now reliant on Qualcomm for its 5G modem for iPads and iPhones, even though the business has been working on an in-house 5G modem for some time without much progress. According to Bloomberg, the organization is allegedly concurrently constructing an in-house 5G model and an in-house 6G modem. Reportedly, since 2021, the company has been developing a 6G modem, according to Mark Gurman’s PowerOn newsletter. SixG will not be commercially available until at least 2030, giving Apple ample time to develop, test, and optimize its technology. Over time, this will yield financial gains for Apple and additionally enhance their hardware autonomy.
Here is the link to what Mark Gurman has stated:
Forget about Apple’s (not canceled) 5G modem. Apple’s 6G research is heating up. https://t.co/xNKI4Mr5C4 pic.twitter.com/oqU9890Rsz
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) December 3, 2023
A modern smartphone would be incomplete without a modem, which is a challenging component to design and test on a global scale. With the modem, Apple finally has all the components it needs to make CPUs for Macs, Apple Watches, iPads, and iPhones.
The ideal applicant for the role of cellular platform architect at Apple would have experience driving and coordinating 6G reference architecture, creating 6G prototypes, and conducting experiments to evaluate potential 6G technologies.
Apple uses only 5G modems manufactured by Qualcomm. Even though there were some disagreements between the two tech companies, Apple renewed its license with Qualcomm in September 2023, so Qualcomm will keep supplying 5G modems to iPhones until 2026. Predictions for 6G indicate that it will significantly outperform 5G in terms of latency and data transmission speeds. 6G has the potential to revolutionize our use of mobile devices and other connected devices with its theoretically unprecedented uplink speed of up to 11Gbps. Following multiple failed attempts, Apple is reportedly ending its in-house 5G modem development project, according to an earlier claim by MacRumors. While the firm is still developing its 5G cellular modem, Gurman has denied these rumors in his newsletter and stated that 6G is the company’s primary focus at the moment.