Taking its legal battle with chip-making giant Qualcomm to the next level, Apple has claimed it wanted to use Qualcomm modems in its 2018 iPhone models, but the chip maker refused to sell them after being sued by the iPhone maker over its licensing practices. Instead, they’ve had to rely on Intel and its chipsets for last year’s iPhone.
According to Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams's testimony in court during the FTC trial against Qualcomm, the latter refused to sell its 4G LTE modems to Apple because of the companies' licensing dispute, CNET reported late on Monday.
The report further mentions that Apple was seeking chipsets from Qualcomm at $1.50 (Rs 105 approx) per device but it admitted to be paying them $7.50 (Rs 525 approx) per device till now.
Apple reportedly dialed Intel's CEO at the time, Brian Krzanich, to ask the company to supply all modems needed for the iPhone instead of only half the volume.
However, Williams' comments appear to contradict testimony from Qualcomm's CEO Steven Mollenkopf.
"The strategy was to dual-source in 2018 as well. We were working toward doing that with Qualcomm, but in the end they would not support us or sell us chips," the report quoted William as saying.
Mollenkopf on Friday had said on the stand that as of spring 2018, Qualcomm was still trying to win a contract supplying chips for iPhones, but that it hadn't "had any new business" from Apple since its previous contracts expired, the report added.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accused Qualcomm of operating a monopoly in wireless chips, forcing companies such as Apple to work with it exclusively and charging excessive licensing fees for its technology.
Apple’s forceful move to rely on Intel has sort of postponed its plans for 5G-enabled iPhones to 2020. This, after Intel has officially confirmed that its future-ready chipsets will not make it into the market before the said period.
Add to that, the tussle between Qualcomm and Apple has already forced the latter to stop selling some of its devices in countries like Germany and China to an extent recently.
(With inputs from The Verge and IANS)
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