Per Apple, it's "the first modem designed by Apple." Given that all previous iPhones also had some sort of modem chip inside — for example, the iPhone 16 sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon X71M — it's easy to overlook the C1 as just another chip that makes the iPhone do basic iPhone stuff like connecting to the internet.

Phone 17 5G modems will be made by MediaTek, as Apple moves away from Qualcomm. Future iPhones will use Apple's solutions instead.

As people continue to speculate as to why Apple declined to include MagSafe on the iPhone 16e, Apple denies the C1 modem is responsible.