Winners and Losers of the Apple-Qualcomm detente

“The end to a battle between Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. removed a hangover for shareholders,” Kamaron Leach writes for Bloomberg News. “While the news led to some positive read-through for the industry, some companies may not be as fortunate.”

“The revival of Qualcomm’s relationship with Apple eventually swayed Intel’s management to hang up its efforts to dominate the 5G smartphone modem business,” Leach writes. “The decision lifted Intel shares to their highest levels since 2000 as analysts such as Cowen’s Matthew Ramsay saw the move as ‘an operational sigh of relief.’ Still, Cowen views the absence of about $3.5 billion revenue from the smartphone modem unit — despite its comparatively narrow gross margins — as a negative for the chipmaker.”

Leach writes, “Morgan Stanley’s James Faucette views the tie-up as a positive for Qorvo Inc. and Broadcom Inc. — particularly if the truce ‘“puts Apple in a better place for a 5G iPhone release in 2020.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: The biggest winners will be iPhone (and iPad) owners who’ll have the best 5G modems, un-throttled!

SEE ALSO:
Why Intel’s smartphone strategy went off the rails yet again – April 19, 2019
Why did Intel kill off their modem program? – April 18, 2019
Here’s what likely happened between Apple, Qualcomm and Intel – April 17, 2019
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
Some of Apple’s iPhone 8 and 8 Plus phones have much better LTE chips than the others – September 29, 2017
Analyst: Apple’s going to dump Intel modems if they keep lagging Qualcomm – December 5, 2016
Yes, Apple is throttling download speeds for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus Verizon and Sprint versions – November 19, 2016
Apple’s modem choices may leave Verizon iPhone users feeling throttled – November 18, 2016
Tests show iPhone 7 Plus models with Qualcomm modem perform significantly better than those with Intel modem – October 20, 2016

9 Comments

    1. MDN have been hypocritical on too many issues to count. Not unlike their political heroes. Pointless to read their dubious “takes” when their blindness and biases are so blatantly obvious.

  1. Winners – Qualcomm and Qualcomm shareholders with a two-day 25% gain in the share price.

    Losers – Apple and Apple shareholders with about a 2.5% share price gain over the same time period.

    Qualcomm will be able to sell many tens of millions of 5G chips to dozens of Android device manufacturers begging to put a 5G sticker on their smartphones. Apple will have a difficult time convincing iPhone users to upgrade to 5G iPhones that sport even higher price-tags. No doubt, Qualcomm is the immediate and long-term winner of Apple vs. Qualcomm. Apparently, no company is able to go thermonuclear on Qualcomm, although Apple had the best shot and caved.

  2. Back in 2006, Steve Jobs and Apple settled with Creative Labs for $100 Million dollars, regarding Creative’s Zen patent, which said that Creative invented the user interface for portable media players (which the iPod infringed upon) . . . some people criticized Steve Jobs for settling — what we now know is that Apple was 6 months away from announcing the first iPhone . . . to jobs, the Creative settlement was like swatting a fly. He just wanted to move on to the iPhone, which netted the company billions of dollars . . . Regarding today’s news, people may claim that Qualcomm won. My guess is that Apple has bigger plans in mind.

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