It has been a long journey for Intel to finally be chosen as part of Apple iPhone's supplier, and it finally came back with the release of iPhone 7. However, Apple and Intel's partnership may not be taking so long according to a credible analyst.
Apple, Inc. used both Intel and Qualcomm chips in the recently released iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Looking back, Intel has excluded from the iPhone 6S in favor of the Qualcomm chips alone. However, with the performance tests conducted by Cellular Insights, it shows that Intel's performance chip does not match that of Qualcomm when it comes to download speed. The difference even worsens as signal strength deteriorates.
There are some who questioned the result of the performance tests. However, Apple said in several sites that during its own tests, all of the iPhone models have the same wireless performance regardless of the chips installed. This led to accusations that Apple was adjusting the Qualcomm chips' performance to sustain uniformity on its entire models.
Qualcomm's modem can deliver speeds of 600 Mbps, while Intel's maxes out at 450 Mbps. Qualcomm's next-gen modem can deliver 1 Gbps speeds
— Deepak Singh (@smarket) December 3, 2016
In a statement of Tom Sepenzis, analyst at Northland Capital Markets said, "Apple has apparently throttled the speeds on the [Qualcomm] models to keep the experience across carriers, with the [Qualcomm] X12 modem capable of 600 MB/s while the [Intel] XMM 3360 modem tops out at 450 MB/s."
Sepenzis also specified that the Qualcomm's current X16 modem has already a capacity of 1GB per second compared to Intel's next modem named XMM 7480 which only has a speed of 450MB per second. In addition to this, he also said that Qualcomm's advanced technology will take over all Apple's devices in the succeeding two years unless Intel comes up with a better option.
In the released rumors of the upcoming high-end Android smartphones, the majority will have the premium Qualcomm chips installed in its devices. As of this writing, Apple has not yet released an official statement with regard to the changes (if any) in their chain of suppliers.
