“On day two of what was expected to be by far the biggest patent or antitrust lawsuit ever heard, with $30B at stake, the two companies suddenly announced that they had reached a settlement,” Ben Lovejoy writes for 9to5Mac. “The news at first seemed inexplicable.”
“The explanation – or part of it, at least – wasn’t long in coming,” Lovejoy writes. “Just hours later, Intel announced that it was exiting the 5G smartphone modem business.”
“Since Apple was reportedly planning to use Intel’s 5G chips for its 2020 iPhones, that left the Cupertino company without an alternative supplier,” Lovejoy writes. “Clearly things came to a head this week. Either Intel told Apple that it was cancelling the project, or Apple did a progress review and lost confidence. Either way, that left Apple out in the cold without an alternative 5G modem supplier.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple is smart to use Qualcomm for the time being and continue to develop modems internally in order to free themselves from Qualcomm’s extortionist morass in the future. Obviously, it would have been smarter to have your own, or an alternate suppliers’, modems in hand before filing a massive lawsuit against the only possible supplier, but perhaps Apple thought they, or Intel, would be further along on 5G modems than they are currently.
SEE ALSO:
Intel axes 5G modem plans after Apple and Qualcomm settle – April 17, 2019
After settlement with Apple, Qualcomm still faces other potential legal fallout – April 16, 2019
Qualcomm and Apple settle, agree to drop all litigation – April 16, 2019
Intel rebuffs report, still plans to supply 5G modems for 2020 devices – April 5, 2019
Intel modem announcement likely means no 5G iPhone until 2020 – February 22, 2019
Or, it was part of a wider more complicated agreement between the three companies where each got something they wanted. Apple gets to have their 5G iPhones earlier, Qualcomm doesn’t take the chance of losing their patents and gets Intel to drop their 5G efforts, and, I’m sure, Intel gets something.
The real story is probably much more complicated.
The real question is whether or not IBM’s exit was a cause or an effect of the settlement.
I could certainly see it both ways:
1. Apple found out that IBM was exiting the market and made a quick deal with Qualcomm before Qualcomm found out and had a total monopoly on the negotiations.
2. Apple made a strategic decision to settle (instead of a decade-long court case) and IBM suddenly realized the jig was up with their modem future.
Either way, Apple has at least six years to develop their own tech while they are guaranteed a steady supply of necessary modems. Not sure what Qualcomm will have in six years.
Um, what article did you read?
Just a typo
He wanted to say Intel
Just say’n.
Cook, the operations genius, not. Consistently putting all eggs in one basket.
Like I said yesterday, delighted by all the dingbat downvotes (cannot wait to get more from all the regular suspect ‘voters’, feeding on their hate and constant wrongness is such great nourishment–squirm piggies squirm), Apple caved.
Apple needs a chef, and all they have is this lousy cook.
Go find some brains…then eat them.
Or what really happened is Apple knew Qualcomm had the goods on them and in fact, just in opening statements,they began to dismantle Apple’s lies. Qualcomm called Apple’s bluff by taking this all the way to trial and Apple new it lost any leverage it had once the truth came out. Their multi year plan to destroy Qualcomm and the iPhone competition Qualcomm supports failed and they caved. Stupid move by Tim Cook – spent 100’s of millions of dollars trying to save nickels and dimes. You don’t sue your suppliers, especially when you know you have no capable alternatives.
What brilliant reasoning! You don’t even have any information regarding the settlement and your are still willing to throw Apple under the bus. Idiot Apple-hater.
Two years ago, Barron reported that Qualcomm would accept $8bn to settle the suit (which was less than they were demanding). Today, after Apple has gone an additional two years without paying any royalties, Qualcomm is reported to have settled for a payment in the $5-6bn range. That is a win for Apple.
Apparently you and the other Cook haters think that this lawsuit was stupid because it only saved Apple a few billion dollars. If you think those are “nickels and dimes,” you probably think that Apple is a commercial failure because it is worth just under a trillion dollars.
What trillion dollar company are you running?