Apple Will Continue To Sell Older iPhones in Germany But With Qualcomm Chips Exclusively

Apple and Qualcomm have been hitting hard at each other amid a global legal dispute concerning Apple’s infringement on a Qualcomm patent. Back in December, Qualcomm registered a win in Germany when a court ruling stated that Apple will have to stop selling its iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models in the country.

Qualcomm sued Apple in Germany stating that some older iPhone models, -the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 8, to be more exact – violated the company’s patent by what is called envelope tracking – a feature that allows mobile phones to save battery while still sending and receiving wireless signals.

The patent violation came in the shape of another Apple supplier: Qorvo Inc. This supplier’s chip could only be found in the older models with Intel modems.

Following this information, the German court decided to ban those models, forcing Apple to pull the devices from all of its 15 physical stores in the country as well as the online one.

It’s only been around a month since the ruling but Apple hit back and managed to work around the court ruling and will be selling the previously banned models again, but this time exclusively with Qualcomm chipsets inside, a move which would comply with the patent.

“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,” Apple said in a statement.

The phones will become available for sale on Apple’s German website as of today.