If you’re switching from Android, you may have wondered why its fairly standard FM radio feature isn’t available on iPhone, and there are a few reasons why, starting with the components. Before the iPhone 7, Apple actually used to include FM radio tuners in their phones, although this wasn’t by choice. The combination WiFi Bluetooth chipset used in iPhones was purchased from Broadcom, rather than being designed by Apple themselves. And that manufacturer included a radio tuner in the chipset by default. So it was cheaper for Apple to simply leave it in.
But despite early iPhones having this tuner, its support was dependent on Apple. They needed to install the FM circuitry to make the tuner work. And based on iOS device circuit diagrams, it’s been confirmed that the circuitry was never added.
But why not? Apple could’ve easily activated the iPhone’s FM tuner and allowed for radio. Their decision not to, demonstrates Apple’s choosiness when adding features to their products. They don’t ask if something can be done, instead they ask why it should be done. And that question is what led to radio being left out of all iOS products.
Apple felt the user experience of FM radio didn’t meet their standards. For example, the availability of radio stations depended on where the user was located. If they had a favorite station in their hometown, they’d lose access to it when traveling to a different city. Not to mention the unreliable reception while in rural areas. Plus, the average sound quality through radio is 128 kilobits per second. Apple Music streams at 256 kilobits per second AAC by default, but since June 2021, Apple Music subscribers can also stream in lossless audio at up to 1,411 kilobits per second (CD quality) or hi-resolution lossless up to 9,216 kilobits per second, providing significantly higher quality than standard streaming and far exceeding FM radio’s analog bandwidth. Finally, radio stations have lengthy ad breaks that Apple doesn’t like since they aren’t getting a cut, and users don’t like since they just want to hear music.
So FM radio didn’t make sense to Apple. Who not only left the FM tuners and early iPhones inactive, but got rid of them completely starting with the iPhone 7.
