Apple Concedes That Qualcomm Was the Only 4G-Ready Chip Source

Qualcomm Inc. lawyers got Apple Inc. to concede that when the mobile phone industry transitioned to 4G, the iPhone maker didn’t have anywhere else to go for key components.

The admission on Jan. 18 by Matthias Sauer, Apple’s director of cellular systems architecture, is the kind of point Qualcomm will have to score in front of U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh as it continues its defense against antitrust allegations by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The government has charged it with using market dominance in smartphone chips to force phone makers to pay inflated patent licensing revenue.