Watch out Qualcomm; Intel is back to take another bite of the Apple.
Intel will reportedly outfit Apple with LTE (News - Alert) modem chips for iPhones sold in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America starting next year. This news comes from VentureBeat, which disseminated the information in a recent posting.
The Intel (News - Alert) chip involved is the 7360 LTE modem processor. Unveiled earlier this month, the solution supports LTE Advanced up to Category 10, delivers download speeds of up to 450mbps, and supports 3x carrier aggregation up to 60mHz combined bandwidth for high-speed data services.
A Seeking Alpha report earlier this month noted that Ming-Chi Juo of KGI Securities believes Intel will supply baseband/wireless components to 30 percent of iPhones in production next year, while Qualcomm will hold on to 70 percent of the iPhone (News - Alert) business on this front in 2016.
While Qualcomm has been the only supplier of this component used in the iPhone for some time, a company called Infineon (which is now part of Intel) provided chipsets for the original iPhone rolled out in 2007. But in October of 2011 there were headlines that Qualcomm would displace Intel as the provider of iPhone base-band chips.
However, Intel does provide components for some Apple (News - Alert) devices. As an Apple website itself pronounces, now every new Mac ships with an Intel processor. Apple in June of 2005 announced plans to use Intel technology in its Macintosh computers, a strategy that saw its first deliverables in 2006.
Despite its rumored new business from Apple, Intel last week said its first quarter revenue of around $12.8 billion will not meet its expected forecast of $13.7 billion. It said that’s due to weaker than expected demand for business desktop PCs and lower than expected inventory levels across the PC supply chain, particularly related to Windows XP refreshes by SMBs.