After the iPad Pro, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro all supported faster Wi-Fi 6E with their latest releases, it’s almost certain to come to the iPhone 15 in the fall. However, these chips will not be manufactured by Apple.
According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple has “paused development of its own Wi-Fi chip for a while” as it focuses on developing 3nm processors for Mac and iPhone. Apple was working on a standalone Wi-Fi chip to replace Broadcom’s version in its device, but Kuo says “investors shouldn’t worry about Apple’s own Wi-Fi chip affecting the chip business. Broadcom Wi-Fi for the foreseeable future.”
This is the second major chip project that has encountered a serious problem. Apple was also working on a 5G modem after buying the rest of Intel’s shuttered team in 2019, but Kuo flagged last year that “development may have failed” and that Apple would use Qualcomm’s chips. in the iPhone 14.
Apple is working to integrate more iPhone and Mac components in-house, with development continuing on several smaller components. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is working on a Bluetooth-Wi-Fi combo chip for 2025, but Kuo notes that “developing a Wi-Fi + Bluetooth combo chip is more difficult than a simple Wi-Fi-only chip. “.
Kuo notes that Apple is worried about a “slowdown in CPU upgrades” and is shifting resources to ensure mass production of its 3nm chips isn’t delayed. The rollout of the M2 chips has been somewhat bumpy, with the M2 debuting in June 2022 and the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips not arriving until January 2023 after being delayed for several months. Additionally, reports indicate that Apple has downsized the A16 chip from the iPhone 14 after encountering “unprecedented” production issues.
