As expected, Apple is to buy the majority of Intel’s modem business, bolstering its quest for self-sufficiency in core technologies. This follows an increasingly familiar pattern in which Apple destroys a formerly essential supplier’s product by withdrawing support, only to launch its own version, sometimes by buying up remains of its partner’s business. Imagination Technologies, Dialog, Samsung and others have lost revenues and killed product lines in the past when Apple decided to go inhouse for components such as the graphics processor and central processor. In the case of Dialog, it bought the firm’s battery management assets and expertise in a $600m deal last year. Until now, it has remained reliant on third parties for the modem, however, which means…