Apple Inc.’s progress in building its own 5G modem in-house is experiencing significant delays, and the company might not have a finished product ready until 2025, some four years behind its original schedule.

That’s according to a report from The Information today. It said the delays may well have been a major factor in Apple’s recent decision to kiss and make up with chip maker Qualcomm Technologies Inc.

That decision followed almost two years of legal battles with that company over its patent royalties. After ceasing all litigation against Qualcomm, Apple promptly signed a six-year agreement with the company to use its modems for its future products.

Of course, it may well be that Apple simply decided to slow down its work on 5G modems after deciding to go back to Qualcomm. Still, the story seems to confirm the theory that Apple was basically trapped between a rock and a hard place, with its previous supplier Intel Corp. also struggling to meet deadlines with its own 5G modems.

“Apple didn’t see Intel’s 5G modem architecture and software algorithms as ready,” a person familiar with the events told The Information. “Eventually, Intel produced a working prototype of a 5G modem, but the chip’s design was big, making it expensive to produce.”

Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc., told SiliconANGLE the report suggests that reaching a deal with Qualcomm was pretty much Apple’s only viable option at this time. He added that this is especially true after the U.S. government’s threat to ban certain nations’ suppliers from providing equipment to the U.S.

“While this largely relates to the network side, it also poses regulatory risks for handset makers, so it’s better for Apple to be on the safe side,” Mueller said

Thus Apple had no choice but to settle with Qualcomm, or else it would find itself years behind rival smartphone makers such as Samsung Electronics Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., which already have 5G modems ready to go.

Moor Insights & Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead told SiliconANGLE the 2025 deadline for Apple’s own 5G modems sounds realistic, noting that it took Samsung and Huawei eight to 10 years to create their own competitive smartphone modems.

“But this [deadline] would likely be for iPads, not iPhones,” Moorhead said. “Once you start getting into non-IP voice capabilities, the complexity goes up.”

Moorhead said one way for Apple to speed things up might be to acquire Intel’s smartphone modem IP, which is a possibility now because the chipmaker has already said it will no longer build 5G modems for smartphones and is apparently mulling over what to do with that technology.

Whether or not Apple would actually do so remains to be seen, however, since the company’s relationship with Intel seems to be deteriorating fast. For example, The Information noted that Apple is also dissatisfied with the Intel chips that power its Mac computers. It added that Apple may in fact be looking to transition away from those Intel chips within the next year.

Photo: Hakan Dahlstrom/Flickr