Starting with the iPhone 4, Apple implemented software and a microphone that reduced ambient noise during calls. The software/hardware technology belongs to the company Audienc and is called earSmart, but few people were fully satisfied with the way it is found in iPhones. The same technology is used in the iPhone 4S with Siri, but Apple seems to have decided to give up collaboration with Audience for the terminal iPhone 5, company announcing this in a letter sent to its own investors.
Audience sells processors and licenses its processor IP to Apple Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, OEM) for inclusion in the OEM's mobile phones pursuant to a Master Development and Supply Agreement (MDSA). Pursuant to a statement of work under the MDSA, amended in March 2012, Audience developed and licensed a new generation of processor IP for use in the OEM's devices. However, the OEM is not obliged to use Audience's processor IP. Audience now believes that it is unlikely that the OEM will enable Audience's processor IP in its next generation mobile phone. Audience is not aware of any intended changes by this OEM to its use of Audience's processors or processor IP in previous generations of the OEM's mobile phones.
Considering that the iPhone 5 still needs these technologies, there is a possibility that Apple has found another partner that probably offers something better than Audience. I don't think that iPhone 5 will remain without software to cancel ambient noises, but it will be interesting to see who Apple has chosen to collaborate with, and if the new system is really better than the one in iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S.
