Apple will use baseband from CDMA giant for iPhone 5 and iPad 2 - report

A report out of the Far East early Thursday claims that Apple has decided on its lineup of component suppliers for the fifth-generation iPhone and second-generation iPad -- both of which will reportedly obtain baseband chips from CDMA inventor Qualcomm.

Rumors that Apple would dump Infineon chipsets in future versions of the iPhone began nearly a year ago when it was reported that Apple and Qualcomm met to discuss "future cooperation." Those sentiments were echoed once again, this time just three weeks ago when the Commercial Times pointed at Qualcomm-based iPhone 5.

Known largely as the inventor of CDMA -- the cellular standard behind the wireless networks of Verizon and Sprint -- Qualcomm has said it plans to produce dual-carrier chips that would enable future phones to work on both CDMA/EVDO carriers like Verizon and Sprint, as well as rival 3GPP carriers that use UMTS/HSPA+ technology like AT&T and T-Mobile.

Though the latest report Thursday by Taipei's Economic Daily News does not insinuate that the alleged Qualcomm design win will lead to a CDMA (Verizon or Sprint) iPhone, there have been other anecdotal pieces of evidence to that end, like AppleInsider's discovery of a cryptic "iPhone developer guru" job posting on the Qualcomm website in August.

Meanwhile, that same report also claims knowledge of over a half-dozen other iPhone 5 and iPad 2 component suppliers -- many of which have remained the same. They include: CPU from Samsung, Wi-Fi chip from Marvell, Flash memory from Intel, touch screen controller by Broadcom, audio chip from Wolfson, video display interface chip from National Semiconductor/Infineon, Bluetooth from CSR and power management from TI.

Apple Insider