A testimony from Apple supply chain executive, Tony Blevins, at a US federal court has revealed that Apple has considered using MediaTek or Samsung 5G modem chips for the 2019 iPhones. Intel was the sole supplier of modem chips in the 2018 iPhones.
According to Blevins, “The entire concept of Project Antique was to find a second supplier. No offense to (Intel) but we don’t want to be the single supplier with them. We wanted both Qualcomm and (Intel) in the mix”.
While Qualcomm was the sole supplier of cellular modems for iPhones from 2011 and 2015, Intel was brought in as a secondary supplier for modems during 2016 and 2017. By 2018, however, Intel became the sole supplier following Apple’s patent-related lawsuit against Qualcomm.