This is a big step for Intel's wireless division as the  XMM 7560 has two features that iPhone and Intel have been missing. The magical component of CDMA a standard that two world’s biggest carriers use has finally made the spec. Qualcomm powered solution will be 1.2 Gbps capable but Apple plans to cap the speed to 1 Gbps based on common denominator logic, as Intel cannot do faster. 

China Mobile 901 million CDMA customers

Verizon in the US and China mobile are using CDMA and the latter has grew to 901 million mobile subscribers while Verizon, America’s biggest carrier has 150 million. Japan is also known for its big support for CDMA technology.

Intel finally has its CDMA support, its first ever, but like every other technology you need some time to make the technology mature. Qualcomm will, for that reason, serve at least the CDMA oriented carriers for the iPhones that are expected in September 2018.

Intel 2 years late to the 1Gbps LTE club

The second big thing that Intel now supports is a GigabitLTE. Using carrier aggregations and multiple band combinations, Intel can now get to Cat 13 speeds of 1 Gbps download and 150 Mbps upload.

This is quite good but considering that Qualcomm Snapdragon X24 supports 2 Gbps that leaves Intel losing the theoretical maximum speed by double. Snapdragon 845 based phones use the Snapdragon X20 modem capable of 1.2 Gbps and have been shipping since the beginning of this quarter. Even last year, the  Snapdragon X16 modem inside Snapdragon 835 was supporting 1 Gbps speeds.

Your geography dictates your modem

Many speculate that Intel might be in all iPhones in 2019 but this risky tactic will most likely depend on the legal battle outcome that might be settled even before the end of this year.

The reality is that Qualcomm makes more robust and better modems in most ways and Intel is playing catch up. Since Apple doesn’t really leaves its customers and fanboys any choice, you will buy whatever the big Apple tells you to do.

In the European Union, that means your iPhones, even the one that sells for €1,149  for 64 GB  means that in most European Union Euro loving countries you will get the Intel modem and no other choice. If you think this is expensive, the fanboys loving the 256GB version will have to pay €1,319  ($1.537.04) and Apple will still try to screw Ireland and the rest of Europeans for its tax money.