Qualcomm modem Archives - Gizmochina

Qualcomm expects to supply only 20% of 2023 iPhone modems as Apple gears up to launch its own chips

Sean — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 08:52:40 +0000

Earlier today (17th November 2021), Qualcomm had announced its plans to compete with the Apple Silicon’s M series chips with its own next gen processors for PCs during the 2021 Investor Day event. Now, a company official has revealed future projections for its modem business as it prepares for Apple’s own modem chips.

Apple’s shift towards its own modems would cut into the chipmaker’s modem business starting in 2023. According to Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala, the company is expecting to supply just 20 percent of Apple’s modem chips in 2023. In other words, 2023 would be the last year that the brand enjoys a monopoly in supplying modems to iPhones. For those unaware, the Cupertino based giant has been working on developing its own modem chips for years now. Recent reports have suggested that its in house modems would ship with 2023 iPhones, which is also in line with the chipmaker’s expectations.

Qualcomm stated that this is still just a “planning assumption for forecast purposes,” although, it appears that it is expecting a 2023 launch. Notably, this news also arrives as the chipmaker is seeking to compete with Apple’s M series chips with its own ARM based PC processors. These chips will be designed by Nuvia and will “set the performance benchmark for Windows PCs.”

On the other hand, the shift from Apple to its in house modems also follows a long legal battle with Qualcomm that eventually got settled back in 2019. After this, both firms entered into a multi year partnership since Apple had to source modem chips for its iPhones. But the company started to also working on its own in house modems to become independent in the future.

A flaw in Qualcomm modems could expose millions of smartphone users to hackers

Jed John Ikoba — Sun, 09 May 2021 04:37:35 +0000

A security flaw has been discovered in Qualcomm’s chipsets that make it vulnerable to hackers. A report by Check Point Research says Qualcomm modems can be exploited to listen to conversations by a phone user, steal data and hide malware. Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem (MSM) has had a long history dating back to the 1990s, providing wireless connectivity support for mobile devices for several generations, up to 5G. The security firm Check Point Research says the MSM can be hacked remotely as easily as through an SMS.

Smartphones that are powered by Qualcomm chipsets are potential targets of hackers, according to the report. The vulnerability is higher for users without regular updates of their security patches, and regular software updates should be done. When the hackers gain access to a vulnerable device, they may be able to listen to calls, read through messages, and possibly unlock the SIM to gain access to private data for criminal purposes.

According to the security report, hackers can use this vulnerability in the modem to remotely control it and dynamically patch it from the application processor. The jacket could inject malicious code into the modem via Android, and access the smartphone user’s call history, messages, and calls.

However, an official statement from Qualcomm indicates that the security issue has already been fixed since December 2020 with the appropriate software updates. Therefore we believe that subsequent software updates since then could have further enhanced the security of the devices from attackers. There has not been any official response from Google on the flaws relating to Android, although there are rumors that the fix could be addressed shortly.