Qualcomm-designed chips will continue to be used in Apple iPhones for some time yet, as the chipmaker has today revealed that it has renewed its global patent license with Apple, coming into effect from April.
The chipmaker said, in an announcement, that the licensing pact is separate from its modem-supply deal, and Apple, the iPhone maker, has been shifting recent devices onto its own modem designs.
The iPhone 18 Pro Max remains a Qualcomm-equipped model in the United States, yet other recent handsets use Apple's in-house silicon.
Among those device details, Qualcomm's note aligns with reporting that Apple's C2 modem is in current iPhone models worldwide and cellular iPad Pro and iPad Air models run Apple's prior C1X modem.
The renewed pact continues a relationship reset by a 2019 settlement that created a six-year patent licensing agreement that started in April 2019, before the companies exercised a two-year extension that saw the term move to 31 March, 2027, and it was understood that another two-year extension option was available.
Qualcomm provided no further details today about financial terms or the length of this latest renewal, leaving open the possibility that the agreement could run to the previously pencilled-in 2029 expiry.
