It seems increasingly likely that Apple's fourth-generation iPhone SE will include features the company has built in-house. A new report both confirm previous reports of and clarifies that Apple's first modem will not be as capable as the chips the company is trying to leave behind.
The new modem, reportedly called “Sinope,” will not support the short-range 5G technology offered by Verizon that can theoretically reach speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. It will also offer four-carrier aggregation instead of Qualcomm's six, “a technology that combines bands from multiple wireless providers simultaneously to increase network capacity and speeds.” Bloomberg says.
Instead, Apple's modem will focus on providing Sub-6 5G, the most common standard already supported by Google, which launched in 2022. In testing, Apple's new modem is reported to “reach a limit of download speeds of approximately 4 gigabits per second”, slower. than Qualcomm's current mmWave models, but the difference is easier to justify on a cheaper device and may not be as noticeable anyway. Ultimately, the goal is to achieve even tighter integration between the modem and other phone components to offer more important benefits than just download speed, such as longer battery life.
Bloomberg writes that launching the iPhone SE first is how Apple plans to manage the risks of its new hardware bet. Debuting the iPhone 17 Pro would be a sign of confidence, but most people expect a phone that costs more than $1,000 to run smoothly. Until Apple can guarantee that, the SE makes sense as a modern guinea pig. However, that won't be the case for long. “Ganymede,” Apple's second-generation modem, should be ready for the iPhone 18 in 2026 and match Qualcomm's current offerings with mmWave support and faster download speeds. By 2027, the company's “Prometheus” modem aims to completely surpass Qualcomm in “performance and artificial intelligence features.”
published today suggests that these new modem designs could also have a pretty big influence on more than just the iPhone. Bloomberg attributes the rumored slimness to the space-saving efficiency of Apple's new modem, and also suggests that future Macs and Vision headsets could also get cellular connectivity in the future. This would be the first time a Mac has built-in cellular, although the iPad has had the option since day one.
There are still years for that to happen, and the road to get here has been long and winding. On the one hand, Apple's relationship with Qualcomm has had its ups and downs. The companies finally reached a licensing agreement in 2019. That same year is when Apple's intention to leave Qualcomm became more public with the . Apple has been trying to put together a team that could create its first modem since then, and even use Qualcomm modems through 2026 in 2023. Now it looks like the company could be in a position for that to be the last deal it makes with Qualcomm.
