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This has been explained multiples times before Apple even acquired Intel's Modem team. (It is somewhat similar to how Intel 's GPU competing with Nvidia. )

We are edging close to 2024. So some of those notes are nearly 10 years old and they are still true.

Not only on what Gumby have said. ( Apart from the part Side Stepping Patents ) The price on what you are paying for the best Modem compared to the best CPU is tiny. Intel even complained about Qualcomm's modem being so cheap after discount they couldn't even compete on cost, let alone price.

And of course hypothetically Apple could make a better modem, but if it cost them twice as much over 5 years. One may ask is it really worth it? At least Steve Jobs thought it was a good price to pay to Qualcomm when he stuck that deal. Just like how he pay a lot more for the Corning glasses that most now take for granted. Only Tim Cook wasn't happy with it. Also worth mentioning Qualcomm spend the highest percentage of revenue on R&D.

Basically we are now able to have hundreds of people all doing FaceTime at the same time in the same place over a single 5G cell tower. And most if not all working in tech give zero appreciation on how far the Network has evolved.