Apple wants more control over every aspect of its products. According to a new claim by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple may use in-house Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips in next year"s iPhone 17 series. Additionally, the company is expected to fully transition over to in-house communication hardware within the next three years.
The recently launched iPhone 16 series comes with the company"s own SoC (System on Chip), the A18 and A18 Pro. However, it doesn"t pack an in-house Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip. Apple currently makes use of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips made by Broadcom, as noted by Kuo. This may change with the iPhone 17 series.
Broadcom currently supplies over 300 million Wi-Fi+BT chips (hereafter referred to as Wi-Fi chips) per year to Apple. However, Apple will rapidly reduce its reliance on Broadcom. With new products in 2H25 (e.g., iPhone 17), Apple plans to use its own Wi-Fi chips, which will be…
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 31, 2024
Kuo claims that the iPhone 17 series, potentially debuting in the second half of 2025, will feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips designed by Apple. For manufacturing the chips, Apple may partner with its long-time supplier, TSMC from Taiwan, with its N7 process. Furthermore, the report suggests that the chip would support Wi-Fi 7. If true, the upcoming iPhones will be able to offer higher speed and lower latency.
Starting from 2H25, both Apple"s 5G and Wi-Fi chips will gradually be used in new products simultaneously. However, since these are two different chips (using different TSMC processes), the early switch-over timelines will differ due to separate production schedules. For example,…
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 31, 2024
It is unclear which models will get the new Apple-designed and TSMC-manufactured Wi-Fi + Bluetooth chips first. Also, Kuo claims that Apple"s 5G and Wi-Fi chips will be two separate chips, hinting that it may debut in Apple Watch, iPad, or even the iPhone SE 4 before the iPhone 17.