Apple reportedly abandons its 5G modem development

Apple has been developing an in-house 5G modem for years after acquiring Intel’s modem business. The modem has seen quite a few delays with the recent being postponed to the end of 2025 or early 2026. However, it seems like Apple is ready to bury its plans of owning a 5G modem and instead, might abandon the project altogether.

The information comes from a South Korean platform Naver according to whom, Apple is reportedly restructuring the investments it had down in the modem development and the workforce it hired over a couple of years. The same update was later corroborated by tipster @Tech_Reve hinting that this is a reliable piece of information that puts Apple’s 5G modems to the grave.

Developing modems is difficult even for a company that has a market cap of $2.95 trillion. Qualcomm is currently on top with its 5G modems and has partnered with Apple to supply modem deals until 2026 as per the latest agreement. Multiple reports suggested Qualcomm’s agreement with Apple was touted as the reason why the latter would delay its own 5G modems, the recent development in the story sheds light on why the delays were in the first place. The deal came through after Apple and Qualcomm had legal problems concerning the patents used in its modem that are set to expire in 2030.

Naver also mentioned how Apple has failed to integrate its 5G modems in the fourth-gen iPhone SE (SE4) that too has been delayed quite a few times. No future iPhones will have Apple’s in-house 5G modems as of now unless the Cupertino giant devises other plans which are highly unlikely at this juncture. 

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