Apple files $1 billion lawsuit against major iPhone partner

Apple just did the unthinkable: The tech giant is suing Qualcomm, which makes the iPhone's baseband processor — the smartphone's modem for connecting to mobile networks — to the tune of $1 billion.

First reported by CNBC, the lawsuit is related to another legal action from earlier this week, when the FTC filed an antitrust lawsuit against the chipmaker, alleging Qualcomm was using its patents to strong-arm competitors into paying exorbitant royalties, even for devices that didn't use Qualcomm-made modems.

Apple was prominently named in the FTC lawsuit, which also alleges Qualcomm pressured Apple in specific ways to guarantee it would use its modem tech exclusively for a five-year period, from 2011 to 2016. The agreement essentially shut out every other manufacturer of baseband processors from the world's most popular smartphone, which the lawsuit says unfairly hampered their development. (With the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Apple began producing some iPhones with Intel modems.) Read more...