“Shares of Qualcomm are down $4.16, or almost 8%, at $50.50, after a report by The Wall Street Journal’s Dana Mattioli and Tripp Mickle [on Tuesday] claimed Apple is working on designs for iPhones and iPads for next year that would completely dispense with Qualcomm’s ‘baseband’ modem chips, citing multiple unnamed sources,” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s. “The report claimed Apple is looking to use more Intel modem chips, which it already uses in some units of the iPhone, and perhaps to use chips from Qualcomm’s Taiwanese competitor, MediaTek.”
Naturally, one would expect Apple to use the threat of taking the remainder of Qualcomm’s iPhone modem business during negotiations. The fact that such a possibility leaked to the WSJ at an early date only serves to increase that leverage. — Chris Caso, Raymond James analyst
Ray reports, “Caso, however, thinks completely designing out Qualcomm brings a big risk for Apple: it has no backup in case Qualcomm successfully obtains an injunction against non-Qualcomm units of the iPhone.”
MacDailyNews Take: If that’s the risk, it’s a very slight one.
Ray reports, “He thinks the likely outcome is simply that Qualcomm’s share of iPhone goes lower: ‘Net, for 2018, our base assumption is that Qualcomm’s share of iPhone modems will drop to 30%,from the present 50%, thus dropping Qualcomm’s iPhone revenue to the $0.9-1.1 billion range.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: No risk, however slight it may be, no reward.
Qualcomm’s FRAND abuse must stop.
Qualcomm’s licensing scam — charging a percentage of the total cost of all components in the phone, even non-Qualcomm components — is unreasonable, illogical, and irrational.
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Apple designing next-gen iPhones, iPads that would dump Qualcomm components – October 31, 2017
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Qualcomm loses two key rulings in its patent royalty fight with Apple – September 21, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic obliterates top chips from Qualcomm, Samsung and Huawei – September 18, 2017
U.S. judge rules Apple lawsuits against Qualcomm can proceed – September 8, 2017
Qualcomm CEO expects out of court settlement with Apple – July 18, 2017
Apple-Qualcomm legal dispute likely to be ‘long and ugly’ – July 7, 2017
Qualcomm wants court to block Apple from U.S. iPhone imports and sales – July 6, 2017
Judge rules U.S. FTC antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm to proceed – June 27, 2017
Apple uses Supreme Court decision to escalate war against Qualcomm – June 20, 2017
Apple’s amended San Diego complaint against Qualcomm leaves no doubt: many billions at stake – June 20, 2017
Apple rejects Qualcomm’s allegation of throttling iPhones, says ‘study’ is ‘methodologically unsound’ – June 20, 2017
Apple just poached one of Qualcomm’s top guys – May 31, 2017