Apple has reportedly paused development on its own iPhone WiFi chips

Back in 2019, Apple acquired Intel's smartphone modem business for roughly $1 billion, giving Apple everything it needs to develop its own WiFi chips for future devices. We've yet to see Apple make the jump to its own WiFi modems in the iPhone and it looks like the company will now be waiting a bit longer. 

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has regularly covered Apple's product pipeline over the years, Apple “halted” development of its own WiFi chip recently. Apple was working on its own WiFi chips in an effort to break away from the likes of Broadcom, Apple's current supplier.

So why has Apple hit the pause button? Well, it is believed that Apple has shifted its resources around to ensure it can continue to make gains in CPU and GPU performance for its A and M series SoCs, which are now widely used across Apple's product stack.

It is also possible that Apple is waiting for the next standard shift. WiFi 6 is still fairly new, but WiFi 7 is in development and should be with us in the next few years. With that in mind, it looks like we can expect iPhones to continue to use Broadcom modems for wireless connectivity for a while longer.

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KitGuru Says: Apple seemed intent on splitting up from its wireless chip suppliers a few years ago, but the transition has been slow. 

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