Back in December, Apple stopped selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in Germany after the company lost a patent infringement lawsuit against Qualcomm. The Intel chips used on the devices were apparently infringing Qualcomm’s patents, and Apple was forced to stop selling the products immediately.
Starting today, the devices are making a come back in Germany.
So what exactly is Apple doing to start selling the iPhone 7 and 8 in Germany once again? Well, you guessed it: the company is actually using Qualcomm’s chips instead of Intel’s.
Apple said “to ensure all iPhone models can again be available to customers in Germany, we have no choice but to stop using Intel chips and ship our phones with Qualcomm chips in Germany.” in a statement to WSJ.
Apple has been facing a lot of trouble from Qualcomm in recent times after both the companies fell off over Apple’s complaints against Qualcomm’s excessive licensing fees. Qualcomm even tried to ban iPhones in China, though Apple was quick to avoid the ban through a software fix. Apple later claimed that Qualcomm refused to sell the company its chips for the newest iPhones, and it could even delay a 5G iPhone if the company is forced to use Intel’s 5G chips, which aren’t coming out till 2020.
