Qualcomm has announced that the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition, after a 10-year investigation, issued a finding that Qualcomm engaged in predatory pricing practices for some sales of three cellular baseband chipsets to two customers during a few calendar quarters between 2009 and 2011, and fined Qualcomm EUR242 million. Qualcomm plans to appeal the finding to the General Court of the European Union.

By designing its own baseband chips, Apple could protect its margins and be less dependent on vendors such as Qualcomm.

Apple said it would update the software of iPhones in China to try to resolve a legal dispute that threatens to stop the company from selling older iPhones in the country.

The European Commision (EC), the EU's legislative and regulatory arm, said its investigation, which lasted for more than two years, concluded that Qualcomm paid Apple billions of dollars to keep it from buying LTE baseband chips from Qualcomm's rivals, violating EU antitrust rules.

Apple continues to use a mix of Qualcomm and Intel cellular baseband processors in the iPhone X. Teardowns of the handsets also show that the company employed a combination of new and old tricks to pack features into its new flagship smartphone.

Apple, locked in an intensifying legal fight with Qualcomm, is designing iPhones and iPads for next year that would jettison the chipmaker's components, according to people familiar with the matter.

Esin Terzioglu, who oversaw the engineering organization of Qualcomm's core communications chip business, announced the move on his LinkedIn page, where it was highlighted by analyst Neil Shah of Counterpoint Research.

If Qualcomm sold its baseband processors at approx. $20 per unit and collected or demanded royalties from Apple amounting to more or less the same amount, that would correspond to $40 per iPhone (or cellular iPad).

Northland Capital Markets's Tom Sepenzis today urges investors to "buy on the dip" Qualcomm's shares, which he rates Outperform, with a $75 price target.

There is increasing evidence that Intel is likely to gain 20%-30% share in the iPhone 7 modem - the first time since 2011 with the iPhone 4 that Intel will be a baseband supplier for Apple.

Morgan Stanley's James Faucette today weighs in on the speculation about whether Qualcomm may lose some share of the baseband modem chip business in Apple's iPhone to Intel, concluding that there's a real chance it will happen, but it doesn't threaten Qualcomm overall.

Europe's competition regulator has accused Qualcomm of predatory pricing and paying a major handset maker to use its 4G baseband chips exclusively.

Jeff Sheley, a Northland analyst, wrote: "We now believe that Intel will capture roughly 50% of Apple's modem business in the upcoming iPhones due to launch September 9th."

Fujitsu, NTT Docomo and NEC will dissolve by March a joint venture for developing core chips for smartphones. The venture, Access Network Technology, was formed in August 2012 to develop baseband chips.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, girding against a shortage of chips, said he wouldn't rule out owning a manufacturing plant or tapping the company's cash pile to ensure access to needed parts. Qualcomm is weighing different business arrangements with its suppliers and would consider "writing big checks," said Jacobs.

Apple's move to standardize on Qualcomm baseband chips will be helpful in bringing LTE to the iPhone and iPad in 2012 thanks to Qualcomm's next-generation mobile device modem chips. The company announced recently that updated chips with integrated LTE and 3G support will offer greater power efficiency for mobile devices, a sticking point that has so far kept Apple from offering compatibility with high-speed LTE networks.

"In the near term, both companies should benefit by cross-selling their products to largely non-overlapping customer bases," writes Linley Gwennap with The Linley Group. "For the longer term, the acquisition gives Nvidia an opportunity to expand the market for "Tegra" by developing single-chip products that combine the application and baseband processors."

Reports in China claimed that Apple is planning to switch its baseband allegiance to Qualcomm for the fifth-generation iPhone and second-gen iPad.

...and if Apple misses out, it will likely never get another chance to acquire the wireless technology necessary to do so because the entire mobile component value-chain is consolidating and the remaining players are giants.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is likely to make CDMA2000 baseband chips which Qualcomm designs for the worldwide-version 3G iPhones, according to industry executives.