Apple accepted Qualcomm's offer to launch a 5G iPhone this year, but only if the licensing fee is reasonable.

Apple is willing to cooperate with Qualcomm again. Jeff Williams, the company's COO, said: "Under reasonable circumstances, Apple is willing to maintain a partnership with Qualcomm and is willing to pay Qualcomm reasonable licensing fees."

Some time ago, it was reported that because Intel could not provide 5G chips to Apple this year, the latter had to seek cooperation with Qualcomm and Samsung, but was rejected by both companies. As for the specific reasons, Samsung gave the reason of insufficient production capacity, while Qualcomm gave the reason of patent lawsuits with Apple around the world.

If you think carefully, there are less than 5 months left until the 2019 iPhone launch, which is indeed a big problem for Apple. Although Apple is currently developing its own 5G chips, the earliest mass production time is 2021, which cannot solve the urgent problem.

However, things turned around very quickly. A few days ago, Qualcomm President Amon declared, "We are open to cooperation. If Apple needs it, we are willing to provide chip support for the 5G version of the iPhone."

It is understood that since 2006, Apple has signed an agreement with Qualcomm to provide Apple with chip support at a licensing fee of US$7.5 per iPhone. The agreement will expire in 2021. If the two parties need further cooperation, they will renegotiate the licensing fee and other matters. However, Williams said, "The licensing fee at that time is likely to have an impact on Apple's net profit, and we need to have other coping strategies."

For this reason, in addition to developing its own chips, Apple has also begun to seek help from other partners, such as Intel and Samsung, but none of them have received satisfactory responses. In 2019, which is recognized as the first year of 5G, and with many smartphone manufacturers launching 5G phones at the beginning of the year, if the iPhone cannot launch a 5G version this year, it may have a great impact on its brand image and market. After all, even Amon once said, "The later the 5G device is launched, the more disadvantageous it will be for manufacturers."