Apple is trying to design an ever-increasing number of own components for iPhone, Mac and all your electronic devices. After starting to produce its own computer chips (as it already did for smartphones and tablets), Apple focuses on modems, displays and more.
Apple wants to design the components of iPhone, Mac and more
As Mark Gurman points out on Bloomberg, Tim Cook said in 2009: “We believe we have the need to have and control the main technologies behind the products we build“. In his eleven years as CEO, Cook has tried to deliver on that promise.
But Steve Jobs had already started this process. In 2010, the first iPad and iPhone 4 debuted with the A4 chip, developed after acquiring PA Semi to design processors. Just two years ago, Apple started making computer chips instead. And now, it also wants to internalize modems and chips for WiFi and Bluetooth.
Indeed, we recently reported that Cupertino wants to replace Qualcomm for iPhone 5G modems. And also do without Broadcom for the chips that handle WiFi and Bluetooth: Apple wants to produce a chip that handles all these connections, home-made (and assembled by TSMC).
In addition to the internal components, Apple also seems to want to design the display itself: the single most expensive component for the iPhone. Since 2018 he is working on display microLED and in 2024 it could present the first Apple Watch with this novelty made in Cupertino.
This could, in later years, lead Apple to produce displays for iPhones and iPads. Avoiding depending on its main rival in this sector: Samsung.
However, Apple will not work alone. In fact, it seems that he is working on a MacBook Pro OLED with touchscreen display, which LG will probably produce. But the road to independence is traced.