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Apple is in the midst of for its Mac hardware, but it hasn’t forgotten about iDevices and is apparently now working to replace the third-party cellular modems it relies on with an Apple-designed alternative.

As , news of Apple working on its own modem came via Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies. During a town hall meeting with Apple employees Srouji said, “This year, we kicked off the development of our first internal cellular modem which will enable another key strategic transition … Long-term strategic investments like these are a critical part of enabling our products and making sure we have a rich pipeline of innovative technologies for our future.”

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This shouldn’t come as a surprise, not only because Apple continues to bring components in-house, but because the intent to develop a modem was made clear with the last year. For now, Apple relies on Qualcomm for its iPhone modems, with the using the Qualcomm X55 5G.

Meanwhile, is expected to be at the heart of 2021 5G phones, but will that include the next iPhone? It seems likely if Apple only started working on a modem design this year. Also, Apple settled its lawsuits and with Qualcomm in 2019. That offers Apple the time it needs to perfect its own modem without disrupting yearly iPhone launches.