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Apple Hires Top Qualcomm Engineer As iPhone Maker Ramps Up Building Its Own Chips

May 30, 2017 @ 05:47 PM 13,286
Aaron Tilley , Forbes Staff ?

Apple has hired Esin Terzioglu, a vice president of engineering at mobile chipmaker Qualcomm.

Terzioglu had worked at Qualcomm since 2009, where he had led the company's central engineering organization and was responsible for directing the company's technology roadmap. Before Qualcomm, he was the cofounder, CTO and CFO of Novelics, a provider of memory intellectual property that was acquired by Mentor Graphics.

The move was first noted by Neil Shah, a partner at Counterpoint Research, on Twitter.

"After an amazing ~8 years at Qualcomm, it is time for me to move on to my next adventure," Terzioglu wrote on LinkedIn. "It has been my honor and privilege to have worked with so many talented and dedicated individuals at Qualcomm where we accomplished great feats as a team (10nm bring up was a doozy and the team did an amazing job bringing the first product to market!!!)."

"I feel privileged for the opportunity to continue my career at Apple," he continued. "Stay in touch."

The original LinkedIn post appears to no longer be active.

Qualcomm declined to comment and Apple didn't respond to a request for comment.

Until recently, Qualcomm had been the sole provider of the cellular modems inside Apple's iPhones for many years. Starting last year with the iPhone 7, Apple began using Intel cellular modem chips in some versions of the new iPhone. Analysts anticipate Intel modems will take up an increasing share of future iPhones.

Apple and Qualcomm are also currently locked in a major legal battle over how Qualcomm licenses its phone technology. In January, Apple filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm for alleged monopolistic tactics and overcharging for its patents. Some analysts speculate the lawsuit comes as Apple may be working on its own cellular chip -- an expensive and complicated piece of technology. Apple has filed a number of patents in this area.

Apple has developed some of the more valuable chips inside its iPhones for years, such as the main processor, but lately, the company seems especially intent on sourcing more components in-house. With its AirPods, the wireless earbuds released along with the iPhone 7, Apple launched its first-ever wireless chip with the W1 Bluetooth chip. The company said it plans on making its own graphics processing unit soon and will stop licensing it from UK-based Imagination Technologies. Apple is also reportedly now working on its own dedicated processor for efficiently running artificial intelligence algorithms, according to Bloomberg.

“[Apple] believes to have the best experience, they have to have control over all the chips," said tech analyst Patrick Moorhead.

The cellular modem is one of the more expensive and energy-hungry components in the iPhone. Qualcomm integrates its modems onto its Snapdragon system-on-a-chip (or SoC), which allows the component to run more efficiently, while Apple has to equip its iPhones with a discrete cellular chip separate from its SoC. By building the cellular modem in-house, Apple could integrate the wireless feature into its A-Series SoC and potentially reduce the amount of power cellular connectivity consumes. Gaining engineering talent like Terzioglu could certainly help with this effort.

"The data point is the latest in a list of instances suggesting that Apple has plans to develop full SoCs in house for future mobile devices," said Tavis McCourt, a managing director of equity research at Raymond James Financial, in a note. "The current A-series processors lack a baseband modem and Terzioglu’s move seems to suggest that Apple is acquiring the necessary expertise to develop such technology."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2017/05/30/apple-qualcomm-esin-terzioglu/#6c4a0f2f2754