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Apple may add Broadcom to its iPhone supply chain, say Taiwan OEMs

Cage Chao, Taipei; Meiling Chen, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 7 January 2009]


Apple is rumored to possibly be considering adding Broadcom to its iPhone supply chain, according to Taiwan OEMs who have seen Broadcom's baseband and RF chips on PCBs believed to be design-in samples of a new-revision or next generation iPhone. The adoption of Broadcom chips in any future iPhone models could mean the loss of orders for Apple's current chip supplier Infineon.

Both Broadcom and Infineon declined to comment.

Infineon's current major customers are Apple and Samsung Electronics, and its share of the white-box handset market is under pressure from MediaTek and Spreadtrum. The loss of orders from Apple could have a critical impact on Infineon which may even force the company out of the handset market, market watchers commented.

On the other hand, Apple's orders would strengthen Broadcom's development of handset chip products. Broadcom has continued to invest in handset chip development despite not receiving any significant orders for over a year since it won Nokia EDGE orders in the second half of 2007, the market watchers added.