Qualcomm’s Revenue Boosted by the 5G of the iPhone 12

Qualcomm's Revenue Boosted

The end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 was marked by the intense legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm over conflicting patents. This was settled in April of last year with an agreement by which both companies agreed to collaborate for several years. From this agreement came the 5G chips that those from Cupertino have already begun to integrate into the iPhone 12. It is precisely thanks to this that Qualcomm has been able to obtain excellent income in the past quarter.

iPhone 12 beefed up Qualcomm

With all the litigation going on in the past, it seemed unthinkable that much of Qualcomm’s Q3 2020 revenue was Apple’s fault. The firm led by Tim Cook found last year that it could not arrive in time to incorporate chips with Intel 5G connectivity in the iPhone 11, so it ended up buying that division of the company to be the ones who were in charge of the development. Until that development was completed, it would be Qualcomm neither more nor less who would provide them with these components.

5G iPhone

All four iPhone 12 models released this year already come with 5G connectivity, so the chipmaker has had to work hard to supply all orders placed by Apple. That ultimately translates to 73% more total revenue than in the same quarter last year. Although its collaboration with Huawei also helped here, the truth is that Apple has also been fundamental in this balance.

An agreement until 2023, at least

As we mentioned earlier, Apple bought much of Intel’s team in charge of developing 5G chips, including licenses and registered patents. However, the process to fully develop the chips and have final versions manufactured is complex and slow, so the apple brand will have to turn to Qualcomm until they can introduce their own components in the iPhone.

Apple Qualcomm

A recent report published by MacRumors shows how this collaboration between companies will last for several years, with 2023 as a target date, although without ruling out that it could last for more years.

In any case we are clear that in the not so distant future Apple intends to be in charge of developing all its main components of its devices. Especially the processors stand out, which have always been developed by the company itself for the iPhone and iPad and to which the Macs will now join. The company will issue the first MacBook with its own chips with ARM architecture.