Intel Chips Set to Power iPhone 7

Intel, which has been playing catch-up in the mobile chip market, could soon become one of the biggest players in the industry if reported deals with Apple and Microsoft work out.

According to a report from VentureBeat, Intel has created a team of more than 1,000 employees to work on delivering its new modem for Apple's iPhone 7 in 2016. According to the report, Apple has yet to officially sign any contract with Intel, but if the company continues to meet its delivery milestones for the much-lauded 7360 LTE modem chip, then Intel could have a major coup on its hands.

The company has struggled to gain a foothold in the highly lucrative mobile chip market with Qualcomm dominating the premium end while companies like Taiwan's MediaTek control a large part of the rest of the market. Intel, which has dominated the desktop computer market, has been unable to grab a significant slice of the market to date, but a deal with Apple would give it a major boost.

Intel already supplies chips for Apple's range of Mac desktop and laptop computers, but a mobile partnership would be a much more profitable one.

The report said Apple will dual-source the modems for its next iPhone, with Intel being one of those partners while Qualcomm will be the other. Qualcomm currently provides all modems for iPhones and iPads. Intel’s 7360 modem is due to begin shipping before the end of 2015 and will be seen in smartphones in the first half of 2016.

Apple has used Samsung, and more recently TSMC, to fabricate its A-series chips used to power its iPhones and iPads to date, but if Intel proves it can supply the LTE modem for the iPhone 7, then sources say that Apple could turn to Intel to build a new system-on-a-chip (SoC) in the future, which combines both the processor and LTE modem.

Intel recently confirmed that it would be adding support for CDMA networks to its new modem, which is key for smartphones that are sold in China with networks in that market using a mixture of LTE and CDMA technology.