Apple CEO Tim Cook: We Feel Good About Resolution With Qualcomm

pretty much: "We feel like we were going to lose the trial"

Translation: Intel’s modems suck and we don’t have what we need in order to ship our own modems yet so hello again, Qualcomm.

pretty much: "We feel like we were going to lose the trial"

"They found our internal memos indicating we were trying to mess them up for leverage. We got caught with our hand in the cookie jar and bent over because we were going to lose". IMHO

You mean you feel good about basically caving in to the pressure and giving them everything they wanted? Okay Tim—we believe you. We really do.

Considering they caved I don’t know why Apple would feel good....

If Qualcomm's initial estimate for the incremental EPS effect of the agreement is more or less correct, then Apple got a favorable combination of royalty rate and chip supply terms. (The back of the envelope calculations aren't hard to do.) Of course, whatever the terms were they were also acceptable to Qualcomm. But, by the time of the settlement, Qualcomm had already had to accept that it wouldn't be able to impose the kinds of terms it had previously been able to impose.

The royalty rate aside, Apple was able to get what it had wanted - a direct licensing deal and a long-term chip supply agreement. Both of those things were important. Further, it's most likely that Apple didn't have to agree to a number of the onerous terms which it had previously had to agree to. So I'm not sure how this agreement can be seen as anything but a win for Apple.

That doesn't mean it was a loss for Qualcomm though. It's certainly a positive development for Qualcomm because Qualcomm was suffering quite a bit financially from the situation as it was. Any settlement that didn't amount to near complete capitulation (from Qualcomm) should have, I think, been considered a win for Qualcomm. (And I don't think this settlement amounts to a near complete capitulation for Qualcomm, though it surely gave considerable ground). It very much needed this dispute resolved. It's just that there's a new reality now for Qualcomm when it comes to how it can operate. That's in part due to the dispute with Apple (and other industry participants) and in part due to regulatory actions.
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They both won. We'll lose some 49$ extra to the next generation iPhone.

Are you suggesting that iPhone prices will go up as a result of the Qualcomm - Apple settlement?

If so, why would that happen? If Qualcomm's estimate is close to accurate, Apple will be paying less (per device) in royalties (to Qualcomm) than it would have been before it started withholding them and filed suit.

everything is great now

They both won. We'll lose some 49$ extra to the next generation iPhone.

where are all these folks that i been arguing against whos been defending intel modem on par with qualcomm ?

I see it as a positive for both companies... Apple was paying (2011) $7. Qcom wanted to increase $18-19.
They settled on (2019) $8-9, I believe.

Apple got rates similar to 2011.
Qcom got most of it's money that Apple was holding hostage and got a 6-year agreement AND as a side benefit sunk a competitor (Intel). And by resolving, resulted in a hefty stock bump for shareholders.

I think that's better than dragging it out for a few more years for both sides.

How did it cost them billions of dollars? Apple was always going to have to pay royalties, both for the previous years (in arrears) and going forward.

Not according to Apple it wasn't. They withheld those payments to Qualcomm under the premise that they were illegal.

As it is, it will be paying considerably less than Qualcomm wants (for an all inclusive 5G license) and less than it would have had to pay (through its contract manufacturers under existing agreements) had it not started to withhold payments and filed suit.

And you're basing this on what? Wall Street disagrees with you:

"Apple could have paid Qualcomm between $5 and $6 billion to settle the two companies’ bitter legal battle, according to a new estimate.. Apple probably also agreed to pay between $8 and $9 in patent royalties per iPhone, estimated UBS, based on Qualcomm’s guidance that it expects earnings per share to increase by $2 as a result of the settlement. The UBS estimate suggests that Apple paid a high price to end a bitter legal battle that spanned multiple continents and threatened Apple’s ability to release a 5G iPhone and put pressure on Qualcomm’s licensing business model that contributes over half of the company’s profit."

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/18/apple-paid-5-billion-to-6-billion-to-settle-with-qualcomm-ubs.html

Also, what makes you think Apple ended up saying yes to the kinds of things it had “stood up and said NO” to? Do you think Apple agreed to all of the onerous terms which Qualcomm had previously imposed?

Yes I do, and it's because Apple had no choice but to do so. To wit:
https://www.semiaccurate.com/2019/04/16/qualcomm-just-beat-apple-into-sumbission/