Bob Borchers of Apple: ‘New C1 modem on iPhone 16e a huge step forward’ | Technology News
The C1 5G modem from Apple on the iPhone 16e is a “huge step forward for Apple and a great extension” of what the company has been able to do with its own silicon from the very beginning, Bob Borchers, Vice President – Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple, told Indianexpress.com on Thursday, a day ahead of the India availability of the new iPhone 16e.
If with Apple Silicon, the company could focus on performance and power efficiency, the C1 is another tremendous innovation, he said, underlining how the transceiver is now on the faster and more efficient 7 nanometer and the base band on the 4 nanometer node. “So we are bringing our tools from Apple silicon and applying them to this very important component, and as a result, it’s 25% more efficient than the previous generation using the same tasks,” he explained.
“It’s the most power-efficient modem we’ve ever put in an iPhone, and this is part of what helps deliver the incredible battery life. So it’s kind of all these pieces coming together to, I think, create for our customers a great experience.”
On the iOS 18.4 update, which will in April bring native support for 10 new Indian languages, Borchers said: “We now cover 90% of the population with a natural experience, but with a little bit of Apple brought in terms of kind of the style in our appreciation for fonts and the rest.” Until now, iOS used to support just Hindi.
Initially, there was speculation the new iPhone would be part of the SE series, but ultimately it was the iPhone 16e. Explaining the concept behind the name, Borchers said: “With the name, we wanted to make sure that people understood it was part of the iPhone 16 family. It has the shared core and essential capabilities—the A18 chip, the 48-megapixel fusion camera, an OLED display—all things that are part of flagship-level capabilities.” The ‘e’ is part of the Apple lexicon, he said, “as we have used it before.”
“At the end of the day, we also wanted it to be clear to people that it was something that was exciting and essential… it was all of these things for everyone kind of coming together.”
“When you compare the 16e to the SE, it is an incredible leap forward… very similar kind of size in your hand, right? But when you look at the fact that it’s a 6.1-inch all-display design, with a ceramic shield, A18, and incredible battery life, it is a huge leap for a customer coming from an SE 3 or an older iPhone or even other platforms,” he added.
Story continues below this ad
On bringing in a more affordable iPhone for markets like India, where older generation devices earlier used to offer the accessibility for many users, Borchers said the iPhone 16e is doing “absolutely the right thing, right now.” He elaborated: “It is the perfect opportunity to bring all state-of-the-art features from Apple intelligence to the Action Button, and give people a reason to come in and look at the hero level of product.”
The 48MP camera, for instance, offers a great balance of incredible detail, low-light performance, and 2X optical zoom in a single package, he said. “Part of that is that we have been able to build on years of computational photography advances across the iPhone lineup,” he explained, adding that the camera results on the iPhone 16e are a testament to all that innovation.
