New Report Claims Apple Will Ditch Qualcomm 5G Modems for In-House Versions in Some 2025 iPhones [CNET]

Could Apple finally be ready to ship its own modem?

Speculation of an Apple-made 5G modem has persisted for years. After several reports and a bevy of rumors, one of the last big pieces of news on this front was a 2023 deal between Apple and Qualcomm to get the latter’s 5G modems for three more years.

While that agreement exists, Apple may be once again looking to start its transition to its own wireless chips as soon as next year. According to a new post on X from noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, we could see two new iPhones in 2025 sport 5G Apple modems: the fourth-generation iPhone SE (expected in the first quarter of the year) and the “ultra-slim” version of the iPhone 17 that is rumored to arrive in the third quarter. 

Apple has spent years working on its own modems, including spending $1 billion to purchase Intel’s modem division back in 2019. Rumors have since circulated that the company was gearing up to incorporate the modems into its products, only to be disproven by recent devices, which sported Qualcomm chips instead. Late last year, a Bloomberg report by Mark Gurman suggested the Apple modem was still facing delays and may not appear “until at least the end of 2025 or early 2026.”

CNET has reached out to Apple and Qualcomm and will update if either responds. 

Kuo has previously reported that the iPhone SE 4 would use an in-house 5G modem designed by Apple. Other specs for that device, based on earlier reports, suggest that it may finally ditch the home button for a design similar to the iPhone XR and feature an OLED display. 

In a separate Medium post Wednesday, Kuo revealed a few details on the “iPhone 17 Slim,” including that it will “emphasize innovative form factor design rather than competing on hardware specifications,” pack a screen that is roughly 6.6 inches, run on Apple’s A19 processor and sport a “titanium-aluminum alloy metal frame, with a lower percentage of titanium than the current Pro and Pro Max metal frames.” The iPhone 17 Slim would also, he says, have only a single, wide rear camera.