Apple Buys Intel's Smartphone Modem Business for $1 Billion, And Own 17,000 Wireless Patents
Apple has acquired the smartphone modem business of Intel for a whopping $1 billion As a part of the acquisition around 2200 Intel employees will be joining Apple along with intellectual property and equipment. Apple will now hold over 17000 wireless technology patents ranging from protocols for cellular standards to modem architecture and modem operation.
The (sort of) inevitable has finally happened. Apple has acquired the smartphone modem business of Intel for a whopping $1 billion.
As a part of the acquisition, around 2,200 Intel employees will be joining Apple, along with intellectual property and equipment. According to the official statement, the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019, subject to the approvals from the regulating bodies.
Image Coutesy: Reuters
With the current acquisition, Apple will now hold over 17,000 wireless technology patents, ranging from protocols for cellular standards to modem architecture and modem operation. However, Intel will still continue to manufacture modems for non-smartphone devices, like computers, IoT devices as well as self-driving vehicles.
Apple had recently switched to Qualcomm for its 5G modems in its upcoming iPhones, signing a 6-year patent agreement, after Intel couldn't deliver 5G modems in time to deliver in the markets. Apple will still be using Qualcomm modems while developing its own with the newly acquired team.
Image Courtesy: Reuters
Intel CEO Bob Swan, said in a statement, "This agreement enables us to focus on developing technology for the 5G network while retaining critical intellectual property and modem technology that our team has created."
He further added, "We have long respected Apple and we're confident they provide the right environment for this talented team and these important assets moving forward. We're looking forward to putting our full effort into 5G where it most closely aligns with the needs of our global customer base, including network operators, telecommunications equipment manufacturers and cloud service providers."
This basically means Apple would have even more control over the manufacturing its devices. We've seen what Apple has done with its A-series of CPUs on the iPhones and iPad Pros. The performance on them has proven to be one of the best in the market. We would love to see what it plans to do with the 5G connectivity.
