Apple completes $ 1 billion acquisition of Intel’s smartphone business

Earlier, when Apple and Qualcomm resumed cooperation, Intel announced that it would abandon the smartphone modem business and plan to package existing patents and technologies for sale. The potential buyer is also Intel’s modem business customer, which is Apple. Apple hopes to acquire its patents and expand its technical team. At this stage, although Apple resumes cooperation with Qualcomm, Apple will develop its own modem in the future. After all, Apple does not want to be subject to Qualcomm. After negotiations, Apple currently announced that it has completed the acquisition of Intel’s smartphone modem business, and this acquisition plan costs about $ 1 billion.

This acquisition plan allows Intel to focus on 5G network development technology while retaining key patents and key technologies in modems that the team has created. Intel has long respected Apple and Intel believe that Apple can provide a more suitable environment for this talented team and these important technology assets. At the same time, Intel also looks forward to fully investing in 5G network technology to make it the closest to the needs of its global customer base, including network operators, manufacturers and service providers. Intel has not completely abandoned the modem business. Although it is no longer involved in the development of smartphone network chips, it will continue to study network chips in other aspects.

According to analyst estimates, Apple will use its own network chip from 2021, and at this stage, Apple’s engineering team in modems is accelerating research and development. Apple does not currently respond to such rumors, but the new iPhones next year will use 5G network chips provided by Qualcomm. It is rumored that the iPhone 12 series, which will be launched next year, will use 5G technology from the basic model to the high-end version, but there may be differences in the supported networks.

Via: BusinessWire