Intel will focus more on 5G after selling modem business to Apple
August 1, 2019 | Investopaper
Intel sold its smartphone modem business to the tech giant Apple for $1 billion. Along with this, Apple also acquired the technology related to the development of 5G modems. Apple has clarified that the move will help to develop its own in-house 5G modems and become independent. Previously, it has to rely on Qualcomm company for this purpose. Apple does not share a good relationship with Qualcomm.
Now, according to the CEO of the company, Intel will explore the other 5G areas and become a big player in that area. Intel still can develop 5G chips for other products than smartphones. He also justified the move of letting go off the modem business by saying, “5G modems were not an area that would differentiate growth for the industry. And with only one customer as Apple, retaining the business would not provide attractive returns.”
He further said that the company is shifting its focus to the telecommunication sector because there is an increase in the amount of software being used in mobile networks that run in the cloud. He called this the ‘cloudification of network.’ So, the mobile network is also a good area to explore for the company which is traditionally focused on the computer industry.
Intel partnered with Japanese tech company Rakuten last month. The partnership created the world’s first end-to-end cloud-native mobile network.
