Steve Jobs thought about it in 2008, and now it could happen in 2028

The constant leaks related to Apple are no longer just about specific products, but rather how Apple wants to own the design and technology in all components from the iPhone (their modem), the Vision Pro (the camera sensors), MacBooks and newer cars with their own specifications. Batteries.

There are many reasons why Apple would want to separate from Qualcomm

We’ve summarized a lot of this in the Vision Pro article from this morning:

“Gorman also summarizes Apple’s plan to design and own the technology in all products. As we’ve written several times, the company underestimated how difficult it would be to create 5G modems. The hope was to launch the modem in 2026, and the iPhone SE might be the first product to be released,” Gorman reiterates. The same year it was launched, and at the same time revealing something new: they want to have camera sensors too. This makes a lot of sense when they intend to release more headphones and eventually a car – all the products should be seen and understood by the outside world.

Steve Jobs considered it 3G in 2008

Now what Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has revealed is that an extension of the modem strategy is implementing its own modems MacBooks. Curiously, iPads can be purchased with eSIM support, but MacBooks have never had the option to always be online – instead, the user must ‘hotspot’ on their own mobile phone or use public WiFi networks, the latter being far from certain.

However, this is not an uncommon question for Apple, as the company has refused to do so since 2008. At the time, Steve Jobs’ argument was that a modem would take up too much space in a MacBook. If Apple could combine WiFi, Bluetooth, and modem technology on the same chip, it would go a long way toward solving this problem. However, this will be much easier now that many devices are fanless and much more compact due to the use of the ARM architecture that the M series uses.

But these MacBooks are unlikely to launch before 2028: The plan is to implement their modems in the Apple Watch and iPad first, which will need another two or three years of additional development.