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Apple reportedly stopped work on Wi-Fi chip to focus on 3nm chip development

By Cookie Monster - on 28 Jan 2023, 10:07am

Apple reportedly stopped work on Wi-Fi chip to focus on 3nm chip development

The Apple iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus.

Apple has reportedly stopped work on its own Wi-Fi chip to focus on the development of the next generation 3nm processors.

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, "the slowdown of processor upgrades" is affecting the sales of Apple's iPhones and MacBooks. To keep the mass production schedule on track, and to boost their performance and power consumption, Apple decided to prioritise its resources on the development of the 3nm processors.

This in turn led to Apple halting work on its Wi-Fi only chip, and has delayed the mass production of its own 5G chip. Kuo added the development of the combo Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip is not affected, but it is more challenging from a design standpoint. 

Bloomberg says Apple's combo Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip could arrive in 2025. As for the 5G chip, analyst Jeff Pu claimed in October 2022 that it might not arrive until 2025.

With Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 rolling out in the next few years, it doesn't make sense for Apple to deploy its own Wi-Fi chip while the rest of the industry uses the new wireless standards. Kuo believes Broadcom will benefit in the near term as Apple will continue to use its components in the foreseeable future, including for the iPhone 15 lineup.

Source: Ming-Chi Kuo

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