Broadcom Offices — Image Credit: Broadcom
0 Facebook x.com Reddit Rumor Score 🤔 Possible
The iPhone 17 and other late 2025 Apple devices will feature the company's own Wi-Fi 7 chips as part of a long-term move away from third-party vendors.
Apple has long been documented as working to replace Qualcomm's 5G modems with its own design, but now a new report says it's doing the same with Wi-Fi. Apple was previously rumored to be looking to ditch Broadcom's Wi-Fi processors, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo now says it will happen with the iPhone 17.
Broadcom currently supplies Apple with more than 300 million Wi-Fi+BT chips (hereafter referred to as Wi-Fi chips) per year. However, Apple will quickly reduce its reliance on Broadcom. With new products in 2H25 (such as the iPhone 17), Apple plans to use its own Wi-Fi chips, which will
— (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 31, 2024
Unusually, Kuo only tweeted this news instead of preparing a more detailed blog post. Partly because of this, it is unclear whether this news is Kuo’s guess or based on information from his industry sources.
However, the full tweet continues with few details. In addition to the iPhone 17 getting Apple-designed Wi-Fi chips in 2025, Kuo says the processors will be Wi-Fi 7.
Kuo also says the chips will be made by TSMC with its N7, or 7-nanometer, process.
What's more, Apple is reportedly confident enough in its Wi-Fi 7 design that it “expects to transition almost all products to its own Wi-Fi chips within about three years.” Kuo doesn't explain why some products won't get Apple-designed Wi-Fi chips.
These won't include smaller devices like the Apple Watch, for example, whose case could conceivably require a different design than the Wi-Fi chips in the iPhone or iPad. That's because Apple is using its own modem with the 2019 Apple Watch Series 3.
However, for whatever devices Apple uses its own modems, Kuo makes the obvious point that it will reduce costs. He also says it will “improve the integration benefits of Apple’s ecosystem.”
Apple currently uses Wi-Fi chips from Broadcom. From 2016 to 2023, the two companies were involved in a Wi-Fi patent dispute with the California Institute of Technology.
Rumor Score
🤔
Possibly
Follow AppleInsider on Google News
