The company set out to design a silicon chip that would allow it to cut ties with Qualcomm, a longtime supplier and bitter foe.

Content of the article aside, I think these business publications are running out of thesaurus entries for clickbait titles. I wouldn’t consider it a “spectacular failure” that Apple could not finish a modem in time for the iPhone 15 launch, especially considering the smashing success that they’ve had pushing out Intel and making some of the most popular consumer electronics on the market.

Apple should eventually find success in going vertical with the modem, and when that happens, Qualcomm will learn what being difficult costs.

especially considering the smashing success that they’ve had pushing out Intel

That’s kind of the point being made in the article, though: they could succeed in the chip game thanks to a multi-decades head-start from ARM, and a decade on top of that of co-developing semi-custom designs for the mobile market. Apple management convinced themselves that this would be a repeatable feat, oblivious to the fact that modem is a the completely different beast.

Apple should eventually find success in going vertical with the modem, and when that happens, Qualcomm will learn what being difficult costs.

Apple is throwing billions a year at a problem they vastly underestimated, and is far from done yet. If one thing, they are only now grasping the true cost of what they were paying for (and complaining was too expensive). I hate Broadcom just like the next guy, but Apple was just employing bully’s tactics to have Broadcom cave, and in the end they were right not to. In the end Apple may succeed, and that will only be good for us, consumers.

That’s kind of the point being made in the article, though: they could succeed in the chip game thanks to a multi-decades head-start from ARM

Apple basically created ARM (look into the history of the chip design company).

Who knows, maybe in 30 years their cell modem efforts will be good enough to use. Or maybe not. I don’t think Apple really minds either way there’s nothing wrong with Qualcomm chipsets.

Future isn’t ARM it’s Risc-V. Apple just learned this and they are attempting to adapt.

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