Apple plans to move away from Qualcomm modems in the Apple Watch while bolstering its new in-house alternatives, according to The

Phone 17 5G modems will be made by MediaTek, as Apple moves away from Qualcomm. Future iPhones will use Apple's solutions instead.

Apple and Qualcomm's relationship has been strained for a decade and the iPhone 16e C1 chip is Apple's first move to cut ties once and for all.

Apple's new C1 modem in the iPhone 16e is just the "start," according to the company's chipmaking chief Johny Srouji. "C1

The C1 modem chip is introduced with the iPhone 16e. Apple was initially secretive. Now there are the first in-depth insights.

There's been a lot of fear in the last few days that Apple left off MagSafe off the iPhone 16e because it somehow interfered with Apple's C1 cellular modem, but physics precluded that from the start.

Per Apple, it's "the first modem designed by Apple." Given that all previous iPhones also had some sort of modem chip inside — for example, the iPhone 16 sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon X71M — it's easy to overlook the C1 as just another chip that makes the iPhone do basic iPhone stuff like connecting to the internet.

At the heart of the system, the C1 (Cellular 1) chip first appears in the iPhone 16e. It is also expected to debut in other Apple devices in the coming months and will likely see use across all or most of the iPhone range by this time next year. Apple calls it “the most power efficient modem ever in an iPhone.”

One of the rumors was that MagSafe magnets wouldn't play nice with the Apple-made C1 modem and its cellular connectivity. It was suggested that Apple dropped MagSafe so that the company could ensure the 16e's connection.

For example, in a congested network area, the A18 chip in the iPhone 16e can instruct the C1 modem to dynamically manage traffic, prioritizing your needs in real-time. If you’re trying to send a photo or video to someone, for instance, the A18 will tell the C1 to prioritize that network traffic over other data tasks.