Apple halts Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip development to prioritize 3nm Apple Silicon: Kuo

According to Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International, Apple has encountered difficulties developing a single component that supports both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity in a single chip, despite the company's intention to have its own chip ready for the iPhone 17 lineup in 2025. 

Apple will reportedly depend on Broadcom's chipset for the time being

Kuo adds that designing a Wi-Fi-only chip is much more difficult than designing a Bluetooth-only chip. Since most of Apple's products use the combo chip from Broadcom, it would be difficult for Apple to switch all of Broadcom's chipsets to its own.

However, Apple is still expected to finish developing its 5G modem chip, which was meant to take the place of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G modem that the company currently uses. However, Qualcomm patent issues and "insufficient development resources" have caused delays. In future iPhones, Apple is still expected to use its own 5G modem.

Kuo claims that TSMC's 3nm process node development of Apple Silicon is the focus of Apple's engineering resources. The "world's most advanced 3nm processors" are a goal for the company to begin mass producing later this year.

Due to the fact that a lower number of process nodes implies a higher transistor count, it is anticipated that this chip will significantly improve performance as well as energy efficiency in comparison to its predecessors.

Broadcom stands to gain as the supplier of the new Wi-Fi 6E chips for the iPhone 15 series at a higher average selling price as a result of the slowdown in processor upgrades. In the meantime, Qualcomm, which had anticipated seeing its share of new iPhone models using its modem decrease to 20%, is now back at 100% until Apple discovers a workable solution to the 5G modem development problem. Stockholders of both Qualcomm and Broadcom have reacted favorably to this news.