iPhone 17 Pro to Feature Apple-Designed Wi-Fi 7 Chip, Analyst Predicts

[MacRumors]

iPhone 17 Pro models in 2025 will be equipped with an Apple-designed Wi-Fi 7 chip, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst who covers companies within Apple's supply chain.

In a research note this week with Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities, Pu said the chip could be a long-term threat to Broadcom, which currently supplies Apple with a combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip for iPhones.

Pu believes Apple will expand its in-house Wi-Fi chip to the entire iPhone 18 series in 2026. He did not share any additional details about the chip.

In January, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple was developing its own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip for use in devices starting in 2025. Later that month, however, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said it was a Wi-Fi-only chip and said Apple had paused development "for a while." It's unclear if development has resumed.

Like its long-rumored 5G modem for iPhones, the Wi-Fi chip would allow Apple to further reduce its dependance on external suppliers for components.

Wi-Fi 7 support would allow iPhone 17 Pro models to send and receive data over the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands simultaneously with a supported router, resulting in faster Wi-Fi speeds, lower latency, and more reliable connectivity. Wi-Fi 7 can provide peak speeds of over 40 Gbps, a 4× increase over Wi-Fi 6E, according to Qualcomm.

In August, Pu said the iPhone 16 Pro models launching next year would also feature Wi-Fi 7 support, but not with an Apple-designed chip.

Article Link: iPhone 17 Pro to Feature Apple-Designed Wi-Fi 7 Chip, Analyst Predicts

 

[majkom]

Good to know, 17 pro is the one to dodge

 

[diego.caraballo]

Fake news to scare the Broadcom guys and have leverage while negotiating chips prices. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[nfl46]

Lol. Wifigate and Bluetoothgate incoming?

 

[masotime]

Wi-Fi 7 support would allow iPhone 17 Pro models to send and receive data over the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands simultaneously with a supported router, resulting in faster Wi-Fi speeds, lower latency, and more reliable connectivity. Wi-Fi 7 can provide peak speeds of over 40 Gbps, a 4× increase over Wi-Fi 6E, according to Qualcomm.

Pretty wild... 40Gbps speeds are basically NVMe speeds.. never thought I'd see the day you could wirelessly transfer at like 3 Gigabytes a seconds.

 

[floral]

I really hope they can pull it off... it'll put this whole "apple can't make connection chips" thing to rest !

 

[trifero]

Really???n Sincerely, I think this is excesive, Iphone 16 is still an incognita.

 

[ric22]

Sounds like risky business!

 

[apparatchik]

Pretty wild... 40Gbps speeds are basically NVMe speeds.. never thought I'd see the day you could wirelessly transfer at like 3 Gigabytes a seconds.

Not to be too pessimistic about it but probably no consumer device will support those speeds due to the number of MU-MIMO antennas needed for a router and the number of devices on the network at anyone time for it to happen in ideal conditions.

If it can guarantee say consistent 3-5 Gbps it would be a great leap forward though.

 

[mrr]

I just rather have an Apple Pencil for the iPhone 17.

 

[MauiPa]

And yet another prediction. I wonder how this one will age. My personal prediction: communications chips seem to be complicated and the firms that specialize in that will continue to win out over firms trying to break into the market.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Pretty wild... 40Gbps speeds are basically NVMe speeds.. never thought I'd see the day you could wirelessly transfer at like 3 Gigabytes a seconds.

*"theoretically possible to..." and "under ideal conditions..." etc.

You're dreaming about WiFi (approx) 12 or 14.

 

[Infodataset]

Another reason to get iphone 15

 

[jz0309]

WiFi and BT chips are a commodity today, cheap, not sure what Apples gain would be, price-wise maybe 5 or 10 cents top..
And we shall see those chips in other devices before iPhones…

 

[commander.data]

If Apple's going to make their own WiFi chips, maybe it'll be an opportunity to resurrect the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule?

 

[ksec]

Fake news to scare the Broadcom guys and have leverage while negotiating chips prices. 🤷🏻‍♂️

As I have been saying it and surprised someone on MR mention this. Apple has been doing this for the past 10+ years.

 

[masotime]

*"theoretically possible to..." and "under ideal conditions..." etc.

You're dreaming about WiFi (approx) 12 or 14.

The "theoretical" limit of 40Gbps is 5 Gigabytes / sec though... 3 Gigabytes/sec is real world NVMe speeds under non-ideal conditions.

WiFi has more restrictions of course, but even half that (1.5 Gigabytes/sec) is still extraordinary.

 

[thegerman]

First gen will always flops. Get the 16 or the 18

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

The "theoretical" limit of 40Gbps is 5 Gigabytes / sec though... 3 Gigabytes/sec is real world NVMe speeds under non-ideal conditions.

WiFi has more restrictions of course, but even half that (1.5 Gigabytes/sec) is still extraordinary.

I'll hope right with you that average Joes will see 3 Gigabytes/second in real world installations with this chip. My guess is still about wifi 12 or 14 at best... in about the 2030s+. But I'll certainly HOPE for it too.

 

[HDFan]

Not to be too pessimistic about it but probably no consumer device will support those speeds due to the number of MU-MIMO antennas needed for a router and the number of devices on the network at anyone time for it to happen in ideal conditions.

If it can guarantee say consistent 3-5 Gbps it would be a great leap forward though.

I'll hope right with you that average Joes will see 3 Gigabytes/second in real world installations with this chip.

WiFi 7 Numbers from a couple of vendors:

Netgear 20 Gbps
Asus 30 Gbps

Optimal conditions of course but 3-5 Gbps should be easily reached.

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[ThailandToo]

The "theoretical" limit of 40Gbps is 5 Gigabytes / sec though... 3 Gigabytes/sec is real world NVMe speeds under non-ideal conditions.

WiFi has more restrictions of course, but even half that (1.5 Gigabytes/sec) is still extraordinary.

Well, from my days of computer engineering, it was eight bits of data plus four bits of overhead for every Byte. So 3GB of file transfer speed would be about correct for 40Gbps. Most people don’t realize the difference of GB per second vs Gbps. One is Gigabytes and one is Gigabits. There are eight bits in a byte and four bits of overhead for transfer of each byte.

 

[ChrisA]

Pretty wild... 40Gbps speeds are basically NVMe speeds.. never thought I'd see the day you could wirelessly transfer at like 3 Gigabytes a seconds.

40Gbps is impossible over WiFi 7. The pathological best case is just under 4Gbps but this is very unlikely to ever happen in the real world as you would need a 4x4 device and a 4x4 router and no other WiFi devices within range. You might get this in a lab in a remote location.

Speed also depends on distance. The added 6GHz radio band is not good at all when it comes to going through walls and floors

Still you might get up to double current WiFi 6 speeds in a typical home if you are reasonably close to the router.

40Gbps is just plain wrong and can't happen even in a controlled setting.

 

[ChrisA]

Well, from my days of computer engineering, it was eight bits of data plus four bits of overhead for every Byte. So 3GB of file transfer speed would be about correct for 40Gbps. Most people don’t realize the difference of GB per second vs Gbps. One is Gigabytes and one is Gigabits. There are eight bits in a byte and four bits of overhead for transfer of each byte.

Actually the data is packed very efficiently. But the maximum rate is MUCH less. The claimed 40Gbps is wrong by a ful order of magnitude.

Think for a second. The carrier wave is at best 6GHz.

 

[TrenttonY]

There comes a point where it becomes unnecessary. i’d rather the main focus for the R&D department be newer, more efficient battery technology. That area’s innovation has been nonexistent the last 5-10 years.

 

[obviouslogic]

I really hope they can pull it off... it'll put this whole "apple can't make connection chips" thing to rest !

Apple’s H-series SoCs have Bluetooth and the W-series SoCs have both Bluetooth and WiFi. Whether that logic was designed by Apple or not, can’t be sure… But Apple did acquire Passif in 2013, who designed and made low energy bluetooth chips. So they have the expertise.