The latest industry news shows that Apple will debut its self-developed 5G baseband in the first half of this year, and the iPhone 16E will be the first to be equipped with it. This move marks another important progress in the field of baseband technology for Apple. It is reported that the baseband chip plays a decisive role in signal stability and Internet experience. Out of caution, Apple decided to conduct experiments on the relatively low-priced iPhone 16E.
According to the plan, Apple will use mid-range models to improve technical processes and accumulate experience to lay the foundation for future high-end models. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman pointed out that the risk of baseband chips is high. If there is a problem, it may cause call interruption, which is unacceptable for high-end iPhones priced at more than $1,000.
Then in the new iPhone 17 Air launched in September, Apple will continue to use its self-developed 5G baseband, but several other new iPhone 17 series models will continue to use Qualcomm baseband.
From the perspective of the positioning of the model, the iPhone 16E is positioned below the standard version, and the iPhone 17 Air is positioned below the Pro version. Obviously, even if Apple's self-developed 5G baseband is really launched, it may not be applied to its own high-end models. There are market rumors that this is because Apple's self-developed 5G baseband is far inferior to Qualcomm baseband in performance, and the downlink network speed is even only 40% of Qualcomm's, and it does not support millimeter wave bands.
Apple develops its own 5G baseband, determined to surpass Qualcomm in three years
The previously exposed plan shows that Apple's first self-developed 5G baseband chip is named Sinope, which will be used in the iPhone SE, iPhone 17 Slim version and low-end iPad series released in 2025. It is worth noting that Sinope only supports four-carrier aggregation and does not support 5G millimeter wave.
Mark Gurman also revealed that the iPhone 18 series released in 2026 and the iPad Pro series released in 2027 will be equipped with Apple's second-generation 5G baseband chip Ganymede, which will support 5G millimeter wave and baseband download speeds of 6Gbps; at the same time, Apple will launch the third-generation 5G baseband chip Prometheus in 2027, and expects its performance to surpass Qualcomm.
Industry insiders pointed out that starting in 2025, Apple will adopt a "dual-track parallel" strategy, which will continue to purchase Qualcomm chips on the one hand and promote its self-developed chip plan on the other hand, so as to replace or even surpass Qualcomm.
It is reported that Apple's baseband plan has been brewing for a long time. It originally hoped that the first baseband would be available in 2021. In order to speed up this plan, Apple has invested billions of dollars to establish testing and engineering laboratories around the world. In addition, Apple spent about $1 billion to acquire Intel's baseband division and invested more money to hire engineers from other Silicon Valley companies.
New iPhone SE may be renamed
According to MacRumors, the new iPhone SE is expected to be released in March this year, but it has been reported that it may adopt a new name iPhone 16E. Weibo blogger Dingjiao Digital said that the new iPhone SE will be named iPhone 16E, and another whistleblower Majin Bu also reported the same news.
Although the name is yet to be determined, the relevant configuration of this device has been leaked. It will adopt a design similar to the basic iPhone 14, equipped with a 6.1-inch OLED display, Face ID facial recognition technology, USB-C interface, 48-megapixel single rear camera, updated A series chips, 8GB of memory prepared for Apple Intelligence, and Apple's first self-developed 5G modem.
It is not clear whether the action button that debuted on the iPhone 15 Pro series will appear on this model. In the United States, the iPhone SE currently starts at $429, and it is expected that the price of the next generation model may increase slightly.
Whether Apple's self-developed baseband can be successfully launched and how effective it will be remains to be seen after the product is actually launched. We will continue to pay attention.
This paper is from Ulink Media, Shenzhen, China, the organizer of IOTE EXPO (IoT Expo in China)
