New Delhi: In what seems like Apple is looking to replace chips made by Broadcom and Skyworks, the company is working towards designing more chipset components in-house. The Cupertino, California-based tech giant is looking to hire several people with experience in modem chips and other wireless semiconductors, to develop wireless chipsets in Irvine, where Broadcom, Skyworks, among others have offices, the media has reported.
It’s part of a broader strategy of expanding satellite offices, letting the tech giant target engineering hotbeds and attract employees who might not want to work at its home base in Silicon Valley. The approach also has helped Apple further its goal of making more of its own components, a report by news agency Bloomberg said on Friday.
This futuristic move is also being seen as the iPhone maker's attempt to get a better grip on the supply part as it has been hit by the global chip crisis. Apple looking to build more of its proprietary chipsets is also about exercising a deeper level of control and hardware integration.
Feeling the heat of the global chip shortage, production of this year's iPhone 13 lineup fell 20 per cent ahead of the holiday quarter, thus, dampening Apple's bumper Christmas sale aspirations. For the first time in the past 10 years, the assembling of iPhones and iPads was stopped for a short time due to the global supply chain crisis.
Post the launch of the iPhone 13 series in September, Apple is not able to meet production goals and also missing out on billions of dollars of revenue, Nikkei Asia had reported earlier this month. During September and October, production of the new iPhone 13 series declined 20 per cent short of previous plans even as the iPhone maker made necessary component arrangements for the latest flagship smartphone.