Intel this evening said it has decided to leave the 5G mobile modem market to focus its efforts more on 4G and 5G modems for PCs, smart home devices, and its broader 5G infrastructure business. The announcement comes just hours after Apple and Qualcomm struck a surprise settlement in the two companies’ ongoing patent infringement and royalties dispute related to Apple’s use of Qualcomm modems in the iPhone.
It’s likely Intel’s decision here was what prompted Apple and Qualcomm’s decision to settle just as lawyers were presenting opening arguments at the latest courtroom trial that began just yesterday in Southern California.
I love it when things make sense.
Unless we have unequivocal intimate knowledge of the order of earlier discoveries and events, any conclusion appears to be another chicken or the egg argument about the who and why.
It’s just as likely that Apple and Qualcomm settling prompted Intel to leave the arena.
One thing is clear, the decision makes sense as there is no point slicing the pie into smaller and smaller pieces if the pie is getting cheaper and cheaper.
cpcf,
Both possibilities can be analyzed.
Intel leaving the 5G mobile modem market would prompt apple to cozy up to qualcomm out of necessity. If qualcomm wasn’t aware that Intel was about to leave the market, but apple was, then apple would have had a huge incentive to settle very quickly. Because once qualcomm learns that intel would be leaving the market, suddenly that news increases the value of qualcomm’s hand against apple significantly, so apple needed to settle the terms of a licensing agreement immediately and threw some money at them before the intel announcement.
If on the other hand, apple’s settlement came first, that does potentially make the environment more competitive for intel, but I see much less urgency on intel’s part to leave the market hours after the settlement announcement. Intel would have likely needed far more time to evaluate it’s position in this scenario. Nobody decides to leave the market in a few hours, that’s not really enough time to get all the intel execs in a meeting room.
So while we don’t know the details, my guess is that intel’s departure motivated apple’s fast settlement rather than the other way around because it makes more sense that way.
Yeah, I understand that logic. Its still kind of odd timing. Apple must have dramatically made it worth Qualacomms to settle quickly. I still don’t know how you do that without revealing that their competitor is leaving the market.
Bill Shooter of Bul,
Yeah, it’d be interesting to have more information about what’s happening from the inside. Who knows if it’ll ever happen…sometimes insiders will write a post about their experiences years after the fact as ex-employees.
The below link seems to explain what was going on this whole squabble.
“https://semiaccurate.com/2019/04/16/qualcomm-just-beat-apple-into-sumbission/”
acobar,
Interesting read from Qualcomm’s perspective, thanks. Although is there any indication the author knew about intel pulling out of the market when he wrote this? Everything he says seems insightful to me, but he may have been missing a piece of the picture too.
@alfman
If what the author reported is approximately true, and I believe it is or else he would be in trouble (Apple passing confidential information to Intel to help the development of it’s line of modems), with Apple capitulating, the derived consequence should be to Intel, or pay too on a new front of litigation with Qualcomm, or save its face and get out. Seems to me they picked the 2nd option.