Smartphone giant Apple has been embroiled in a huge legal battle with Qualcomm which in its own right is a tech behemoth. The battle of the titans started this week in San Diego and in a surprising move, the companies reached a settlement as opening arguments were completed. Qualcomm is the largest chip manufacturer for smartphones and is relied on by almost all phone manufacturers.
Although Qualcomm had previously supplied chips for iPhones, this was halted with Apple’s 2018 releases of iPhones. Apple instead used rival chip maker Intel to produce Bionic A12 chips that the company used.
Apple with a host of other manufacturers of iPhone parts had claimed that they have for years overpaid roughly $9b in royalties for use of Qualcomm’ Internet connectivity technologies. The iPhone manufacturer pays a portion of each iPhone sale revenue to Qualcomm for use of their chips in their devices. Qualcomm, on the other hand, had argued that Apple with other iPhone parts makers owe the company $7.5b in unpaid royalties.
The company further argued that although Apple is the world’s most profitable smartphone seller, the company contributed nothing to the cellular technologies that Qualcomm worked hard to develop. Technologies that have given iPhones an edge over other devices.
