Apple is getting ready to replace the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips in its products, currently supplied by Broadcom, with a chip of its own design. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the company has been hard at work on this project for several years and should start rolling out the chips in products beginning in 2025.
The chip is separate from the in-house cellular 5G modem, which will eventually replace parts from Qualcomm, though the two projects are intended to work together in an end-to-end wireless system that Apple hopes will be more power efficient.
The new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, code-named Proxima, will first appear in refreshed HomePod Mini and Apple TV devices, but should also show up in the iPhone 17 later in the year. Macs will get the new chip starting in 2026, according to the report.
Apple may not be able to meet every technical capability that Broadcom can provide, according to Bloomberg’s sources, but the chip will still support Wi-Fi 6E. If the chip does not support Wi-Fi 7, however, it would be a step backward from this year’s iPhones, which do support that standard.
Apple’s primary goal with the chips, at least at first, seems to be tighter integration with its other chips and products and better size and power efficiency, to improve battery life and provide for new product form factors.
Author: Jason Cross, Senior Editor, Macworld
Jason has written about technology for more than 25 years - first in the gaming press, then focusing on enthusiast PCs and general technology. He enjoys learning how complicated technology works and explaining it in a way anyone can understand.