The Wall Street Journal reveals the “astonishing failure” of thousands of Apple workers

For years, Apple has built its iPhone technology to be lighter, faster, and—most importantly for the country’s most valuable company—designed in-house. But according to an article Wednesday in… wall Street Journal, The company has just seen a huge engineering project completely delayed.

The newspaper reported that Apple, based in Cupertino, spent billions of dollars and employed thousands of engineers to build its own wireless communication chip, or modem chip, for its main iPhone products. Citing “former engineers and company executives familiar with the project,” most of whom were not identified, the report says the company planned to include the chip in the iPhone 15 rollout this month, but tests conducted late last year found that the chip was too slow. And very big.

Therefore, the hardware and software giant will continue to rely on Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chipmaker that dominates the modem chip market and serves as one of Apple’s most important suppliers. Qualcomm Announce September 11 that it will continue to supply Apple with its modem systems until 2026; The deal brings Qualcomm billions of dollars annually. CNBC mentioned.

But while profitable, the relationship hasn’t fostered much goodwill between the two companies, according to the magazine, which called their dispute “one of the ugliest corporate battles in history” in a 2019 report. piece. For many years, Apple Case taken With Qualcomm charging twice for each phone produced: once to license its patents and once to use the physical chip. The companies have quarreled Patents In open court, harsh criticism was traded in He presses.

The newspaper reported that Apple wanted to stop its dependence on Qualcomm, so after an order from CEO Tim Cook in 2018, the phone maker pumped money into designing an internal modem chip. The modem chip designed by Apple would boost profits for the iPhone, the company’s most popular device, by eliminating the company’s need to buy the part from an outside supplier.

In a Wednesday headline, the Journal described Apple’s efforts to build a modem chip as a “spectacular failure.”

The newspaper reported that the CHIP project was riddled with unrealistic goals, late deadlines, mixed priorities, and inexperienced leadership. Reportedly, executives I didn’t originally realize how difficult it would be to make modem chips, which must work with different cellular providers with varying degrees of connection strength to provide data and call services reliably, per port.

“Cellular is a beast,” Serge Willenegger, a former Qualcomm CEO, told the newspaper, adding that Apple’s delays indicate the company did not expect building a modem to be this complex.

“Just because Apple builds the best silicon on the planet, it’s ridiculous to think it can also build a modem,” Jaideep Ranade, Apple’s former wireless director, told the outlet pointedly. The two men left their companies in 2018, which is when the company, according to a Journal source and former Apple HR executive Chris Dever, began work on the modem chip.

Billions of dollars have been spent on the project, according to the newspaper, including purchasing Intel’s 2,200-employee modem business and hiring former Qualcomm employees. But prototype tests late last year went poorly, the newspaper reported: Apple’s chips were about three years behind Qualcomm’s best chips — too slow, too large, and “prone to overheating.”

Apple, which has a huge cache of cash and a huge incentive to build the new chip, will continue working on the project, the outlet reported.

Apple did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment.

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