Apple & GPU maker Imagination Technologies kiss and make up after years of spats

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iPhone XS
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What you need to know

  • Imagination Technologies provided GPUs for iPhones and iPads until 2018.
  • Apple warned in 2017 that it would stop relying on the company within two years.
  • Since then the pair have been arguing about employee poaching and more. Now they've made up.

UK-based GPU supplier Imagination Technologies has announced that it is again working with Apple after years of public falling out and accusations of employee poaching.

Apple first told Imagination Technologies that it would stop relying on its GPUs for use in iPhones and iPads back in 2017. It said that would happen within two years, with Apple moving to its own chips as soon as the 2018 iPhone X and iPhone 8. But that wasn't the end of it.

Since then the two companies have gone back and forth, arguing over various points including whether Apple poached the UK outfit's employees. But now there's been an announcement, with Imagination issuing a short statement saying that all is now well. In fact, the two companies have signed a new multi-year deal.

Imagination Technologies ("Imagination") announces that it has replaced the multi-year, multi-use license agreement with Apple, first announced on February 6, 2014, with a new multi-year license agreement under which Apple has access to a wider range of Imagination's intellectual property in exchange for license fees.

Apple hasn't yet spoken about the deal, but as 9to5Mac notes this could all be down to Imagination's new IMG A-Series GPU which is said to be the fastest yet. Apple will surely want some of that in its iPhones and iPads.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.