Apple said to be losing faith in Intel’s 5G modem capabilities

A new report suggests Apple no longer has faith in Intel’s ability to deliver a 5G modem it can stick in its 2020 iPhones.

The scoop comes courtesy of Fast Company, which cites an anonymous source that claims to have some insight into the development of the Intel XMM 8160 5G modem. This shadowy figure told Fast Company Intel has been missing incremental deadlines for the development of this critical component, which has led to understandable consternation on the part of Apple.

Equally unsurprising is the revelation that Apple is a pretty high-maintenance company to work with. While some people might take a more chilled approach to component punctuality, Apple is pretty uptight about this sort of thing and isn’t shy about giving errant suppliers a hard time. Intel presumably bent over backwards for this massive deal win, but it always looked like a bit of a reach.

Speculation around Intel’s ability to deliver began as soon as the deal was announced. Late last year Intel got so sick of this scepticism that it publicly announced it was going to have the part ready half a year sooner than previously promised. At the time that seemed like a cosmetic PR move and when asked for comment on this story Intel only had the following to say: “As we said in November 2018, Intel plans to support customer device launches in 2020 with its XMM 8160 5G multimode modem.”

That’s hardly the most strident rebuttal of these latest allegations is it? Especially the use of the term ‘plans to’ instead of ‘will’, that seems to deliberately allow for a level of wriggle room that shouldn’t be needed if everything’s going according to plan. You can see why Apple might be concerned and the report implies Intel might be starting to think it doesn’t need the hassle too.

It goes on to talk about Apple’s ultimate goal of making its own modems, pointing out, as many have previously, that this is far from straightforward. The piece cites a UBS analyst who has joined the chorus of scepticism about Apple’s ability to deliver a 5G iPhone in 2020. Of course this could all be rubbish and Intel may well deliver on its promises, but if it doesn’t Apple doesn’t seem to have a 5G plan B.