Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, gave Blogomberg that, among other topics, talked about the company's relationship with Apple. The relationship is that according to Mollenkopf "it is more natural now" after the legal battle between the two companies.
Minor context
The clashes between Apple and Qualcomm come from a long way and have always been around one point: the Qualcomm's patent licensing strategy.
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You're signed in 2009 Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) alleged that Qualcomm's licensed behavior violated Japanese hacking laws.
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And in 2009, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) launched an investigation that led Qualcomm to acquire, in 2019, 200 million fine dollars.
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In 2017, the Apple's first lawsuit is against Qualcomm in China and Germany for copyright issues. Qualcomm won a double victory when Germany banned the sale of an iPhone that infringed on patents in Germany. Apple has continued the sale in Germany after making the necessary changes.
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In January 2017 Apple released the following press release:
For many years, Qualcomm has wrongly insisted on charging a professional fee for it they have nothing. Apple works more with specialty things like smart ID, advanced display, and cameras, to name a few, a fee for Qualcomm for no reason, and more expensive for Apple to support those new features.
Qualcomm has charged Apple to showcase its chip technology again afterwards demanded payment of a percentage of sales revenue for each iPhone. Percentage, as Apple already reported, relies on technology that Qualcomm doesn't do much about.
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From here on, the war intensified when the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with support from Apple, Intel, Huawei and other manufacturers, asking the courts to decide that Qualcomm's licensing policy was anti-competitive.
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In response, Qualcomm filed a complaint with Apple with the FTC alleging that Apple had violated three of its patents. The court eventually ruled that only one of them had broken the law it failed to comply with Qualcomm's claims to oppose the sale of iPhones.
From this point things have worsened, in the legal and controversial fields and in the press releases or discussions of the leaders of both companies, until, shortly after Apple's lawsuit against Qualcomm overpaid, both companies they agreed to a six-year arbitration contract and dismissed all accusations
Later we learned that Intel has shut down its chip module, the chips that Apple planned to use to replace Qualcomm, so the Cupertino company had no choice but to continue using Qualcomm chips.
This is a split of Intel chips, a few weeks later bought by Apple in its project to make its own chip modes that will allow them to make themselves an integral part of all mobile phones.
And this is the end of the story?
After the agreement, which included a $ 4.5 billion payment from Apple to Qualcomm, the relationship between the two of them returned to a positive direction. Now, in a recent interview, Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, said now that "the conversation is about products and how to deliver products as quickly as possible."
The next generation of the iPhone, which we think will be called the iPhone 12, should bring it to fruition the first devices compatible with 5G networks. Possible compatibility, at least in part, thanks to the 5G modem thanks that Qualcomm was made.
For years Apple has been focusing on it designing the essential components of the devices they sell. It started with the design of processors chip, series A, and continued with iPhone's graphs chips. Over the years we have also seen Mac talk with an ARM processor, that is, a computer with processors that create an iPhone or iPad.
Being able to design and modify its components will allow Apple to manufacture without having to wait for other manufacturers to update or upgrade their technology. What can we see in the future? For the efficiency of the A series chip Will we see a Mac with a 30-hour battery?
Our next appointment with news from Apple, not to mention the possible and expected press release to introduce new products, is WWDC to take place online on June 22. And with Hardware news, we'll see in September / October what Apple has in store.