Recently, Apple unveiled its inaugural in-house cellular modem, dubbed the C1, in conjunction with the announcement of , although the company provided limited details about it. However, it is reported that Apple has ambitious plans for future generations of the modem. According to ’s Mark Gurman, Apple aims to eventually integrate the modem component into the primary processor. The integration of the modem into the main processor may offer energy and cost benefits, but this design is still in the distant future. It is likely that the C2 and C3 modems will be released without this feature first, which Apple is already testing, according to Gurman, and the integrated design will not be introduced until at least 2028.

During the unveiling of the C1 modem, Apple described it as its “most power-efficient modem ever in an iPhone.” The $599 iPhone 16e also features an A18 chip, albeit with four GPU cores, and supports Apple Intelligence, even though that’s not what people actually wanted from the device.