Apple introduced its first in-house cellular modem, the C1, last week with the announcement of the not-so-budget iPhone 16e, and while it didnt get into too much detail about it, the company reportedly has some big plans for future iterations. According to Bloombergs Mark Gurman, Apple intends to eventually meld the modem component into the main processor. Integrating the modem into the main processor could have energy and cost benefits, but that design is still a ways off. Well likely see the C2 and C3 without it first, which the company is already testing according to Gurman, and the integrated design wont follow until 2028 at the earliestDuring its unveiling, Apple called the new C1 modem its most power-efficient modem ever in an iPhone. The $599 iPhone 16e also has an A18 chip (but with four GPU cores) and supports Apple Intelligence, even if thats not what people actually wanted out of it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apple-reportedly-plans-to-combine-its-modem-with-future-processors-as-a-single-package-225159519.html?src=rss