Apple will swap to its in-house Wi-Fi chip with the upcoming iPhone 17 sequence. The slim iPhone 17 Air would be the solely outlier, sticking to the C1 modem and a Broadcom chip.
Broadcom at present provides Apple with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips for its units.
iPhone 17 could use Apple’s Wi-Fi chip
Apple has lengthy relied on Broadcom for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. With the corporate’s rising ambitions in growing in-house chips, it plans to interchange Broadcom’s Wi-Fi module with its personal. Past value financial savings, this transfer will allow Apple to realize an unprecedented degree of {hardware} and software program integration.
There are rumors that the 2025 Apple TV and HomePod will use Apple’s in-house Wi-Fi chip. However that’s not it. Reputed TF Worldwide analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims barring the iPhone 17 Air, Apple will use its in-house Wi-Fi module on all different iPhone 17 fashions. He says aside from value financial savings, the transfer will assist “improve connectivity throughout Apple units.”
Following Qualcomm, Broadcom’s Wi-Fi chips can even get replaced by Apple’s in-house chips at a sooner tempo. My newest business survey signifies that each one new 2H25 iPhone 17 fashions will function Apple’s in-house Wi-Fi chips (vs. solely the slim iPhone 17 will undertake Apple’s C1 modem…
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) February 20, 2025
Don’t anticipate Apple’s first Wi-Fi module to carry main efficiency enhancements
The transfer away from Broadcom can be an enormous one for Apple, particularly because it has relied on its radio modules for years now. As with the corporate’s C1 modem that debuted on the iPhone 16e, Apple’s first-gen Wi-Fi radio could not ship any important efficiency enchancment or technological breakthrough. Nevertheless, it may present higher energy effectivity or different connectivity enhancements.
Kuo beforehand claimed the chip can be fabricated on TSMC’s 7nm node and help the Wi-Fi 7 normal.
Regardless of utilizing an Apple-built Wi-Fi module, the iPhone 17 lineup won’t use the C1 modem. As a substitute, aside from the iPhone 17 Air, all fashions will keep on with a Qualcomm-supplied baseband.
Apple will possible transfer away from Qualcomm and Broadcom for such core parts of its units sooner or later. It may additionally finally combine the Wi-Fi module into the modem for higher integration and energy effectivity.