When Apple and Qualcomm settled their legal cases, Intel experienced the consequence of that truce. Intel is Apple’s current 4G modem supplier but has struggled to create 5G modem. With the Apple 5G modem opportunity out, Intel does not see a clear future therein. Consequently, Intel has exited the 5G modem business.

Intel abandoned its efforts to develop modems for the next generation of wireless technology Tuesday, just hours after rival Qualcomm reached a settlement with Apple over wireless technology for the iPhone.

Intel chief executive Bob Swan said the chipmaker is now “assessing our options” for the future of its wireless business but said the forthcoming, superfast 5G technology “continues to be a strategic priority across Intel.”

“We are very excited about the opportunity in 5G and the ‘cloudification’ of the network, but in the smartphone modem business it has become apparent that there is no clear path to profitability and positive returns,” Swan said in a written statement. He said the company will say more about its wireless plans when it releases first-quarter financial results next week.

This was my postulation when the truce news broke: Apple wanted 5G modem and no one would give it that but Qualcomm. With Intel not ready, and Huawei a no-go-area, Apple had to dance to the music of Qualcomm. So, magically, the legal cases and the premises upon which they were built became irrelevant – iPhone 5G must be in the market to compete with Samsung Galaxy! Just like that Apple has to work with Qualcomm, and yes –  they settled.

Do not be deceived, Apple would not have settled with Qualcomm if it has any other alternative to get 5G into iPhone effectively. As it stands today, Intel is not ready and Huawei is a no-go area, so only Qualcomm can power Apple’s 5G future. That is why after all the wasted years and making lawyers richer, Apple agreed to pay Qualcomm to close all the legal issues, and then quickly placed orders with six-year licensing agreement.

But note that market rewarded both Intel and Qualcomm – Intel has no business in 5G modem; high-end mobile modem has always been Qualcomm domain. Simply, Intel should focus on what it knows how to make – server chips. Yes, markets think Apple just did Intel a favor by getting it to focus on what it knows how to do. For Qualcomm, it was a moment – the enemy is back to the fold, as a friend. The stock responded.

LinkedIn Comment on Feed

Apple and Qualcomm were always going to settle, eventually. When Apple sued Qualcomm over alleged monopolistic contracts, extortionist pricing practices, patents infringements, and other poisons in the new year, Qualcomm had not only counterclaimed but also countersued.

The only way out of such battles between big boys is settlement, except you want to have a long war like that between Apple and Samsung. So I’m happy that both Apple and Qualcomm have settled this matter. While this settlement allows Intel focus on its core market as you have said, I am more concerned about the monopoly this might lead to in the market. I remember that anti-trust regulators have raised concerns about this before.

In Europe, Qualcomm was fined $1.2 billion for paying Apple to use its chips and keep its fingers off competitors’ chips from 2011 to 2016. With the new romance between Apple and Qualcomm, regulators should keep their eyes open.

My Response: Good points. Intel is not leaving out of strength. It knows it cannot compete with Qualcomm on 5G modem and with Apple signing 6- year contract, there is no market to serve. So, not pretending it is still doing 5G modem is wisdom. On antitrust, it is what it is – the market is free, anyone can jump in if you can handle the heat. That should not be an issue.

Another Comment

It’s about making use of that famous thing called ‘common sense’, which most times – a lot of people fail to activate theirs, thereby allowing their stupidity to take preeminence! Apple was able to activate its common sense, Intel did same, Qualcomm did likewise; so all of them are likely to live happily after.

Great achievers focus on improving things they already do well. Others spend more time trying to improve things they hardly do well. Until you discover what you do well and focus to be better on it, you will struggle to rise.

Do all to discover your passion, and accelerate it

Very soon, applications will be opened for Muhammadu Buhari University. Nigeria needs as many universities it can register. NUC is processing 303 at the moment; this new one will make it 304.

First Lady Aisha Buhari has expressed her plan to establish a private university to be known as “Muhammadu Buhari University”.

She disclosed this on Saturday during a town hall meeting in Yola organised by her in collaboration with concern indigenes of Adamawa.

Mrs Buhari, who did not however reveal when or where the university would be sited, explained that the university would be established in collaboration with partners from Sudan and Qatar.

Beyond 303 NEW Private University Applications in Nigeria, Quality Access Is Key

By Nnamdi Odumody

A Smart City is a city in which technology is a driving force in provision of smart services to its citizens. According to Mckinsey Global Institute, by 2025, cities will save up to $1.7 trillion a year delivering services if they deploy new digital systems on a large scale. As part of hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics, the city of Barcelona which is the capital of Catalonia in North Eastern Spain converted its abandoned textile district into a technology hub called @22 which is now home to dozens of startups, and laid a network of fiber optic cables which covers 310 square miles.

Twenty seven years later, it is Europe’s and the world’s most wired city. With an operating system that runs the entire city within one interface in place, different applications aimed at making the lives of its 2 million residents happier, it saves $58 million annually through Connected Water management, $37 million from Connected Street Lighting Solutions, reducing costs by one third.

According to Cisco, Barcelona will see cumulative economic benefits of 832 million euros by 2025, including 86.4 million euros in extra tourist spending. Its #1 tourist attraction, Camp Nou which is the homeground of FC Barcelona new stadium, will offer new revenue streams by linking fans directly to merchandising with free Wi-fi. It will also remove the fences around its 54 acre compound that attracts about 1.7 million tourists annually, creating a smart city neighborhood in the middle of Barcelona.

The Emirate of Dubai launched its Smart Dubai Initiative to make it the world’s smartest city by 2021. Between 2014 and 2017, Dubai launched 137 Smart Initiatives and 1, 129 Smart Services with 307,105 total downloads. It’s AVG happiness index in 2016 was 90 percent  with 30,123 questions asked in three months and 11 billion AE Dirham transactions same year.

The Government of Dubai between 2003 and 2015 saved $1.2 billion through smart services with $5.6 saved by them for every $1 spent on Smart Transformation. It’s potential value from IoT (Internet of Things) is $4.8 billion by 2020, $1.5 billion potential value at stake from government blockchain by 2020, $2.9 billion potential gross value added to GDP from Open and Shared City Data annually starting from 2021 (i.e $1,000 value per person in the city) while 100 percent Dubai government transactions will be on the blockchain by 2020. Dubai’s government will celebrate its last paper transaction by 2021.

The Smart Nation Singapore is the national effort of the government to remake the city state and its about 5 million citizens to embrace technology to make their daily lives easier, irrespective of age, gender, race and religion. It’s CODEX (Core Operations Development Environment and Exchange) is the digital platform that will enable the government to deliver better digital services to citizens faster and more cost efficiently. Its benefits:

• Reusable digital components including machine readable data flows, middleware and micro services will be shared across agencies so that developers can plug and play into these resources and focus their time and energy on building better products to serve the public better.
• The adoption of common tools and standards within government and by vendors will reduce bugs and raise the quality, reliability and security of services.
• Government can tap into what the commercial cloud can offer in scalability and reliability as well as software services and tools.
• This facilitates public and private sector to work together to develop more user centric services for the public.

The Smart Nation Sensor Platform is an integrated nationwide sensor platform to improve municipal services, city level operations, planning and security. More systematic use of sensors and data to improve urban planning, build more responsible and reliable public transport and better public security. An interconnected network of 110,000 lamp posts with wireless sensors will collate data that will be used for urban and operational planning, maintenance and response.

The Lagos State Government and other State Governments of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Governments of Rwanda, Kenya, and Mauritius can learn from these three different experiences in adoption and implement smart initiatives and services to digitally transform their nations as well as enjoy the benefits of digital economies. Our continent needs to get 5G adoption and deployment right as it will be important in this redesign.