iPhone’s Inside Beneficiaries

The first few attempts at understanding the guts of the iPhone have started emerging. Here are 2 pieces that take a crack at the topic from EETimes and TechOnline.

Key points on the iPhone’s components are below:

* A Samsung chip, which is a three stacked die package containing an ARM processor (S5L8900) and two 512 Mbit Mobile DDR SDRAM dice.
* A Broadcom part (BCM5973) which probably provides the I/O controller used for the video interface to the touch screen.
* 2 Infineon parts, the PMB8876 S-Gold 2 multimedia engine with EDGE functionality provides the iPhone’s baseband, and the second Infineon part appears to be the GSM RF transceiver.
* A National Semiconductor 24-bit RGB display interface serializer.
* Possibly, a Texas Instruments power-management device, although there is differing opinion about who provides the power management unit. Could also be National Semiconductor. Whichever company provided it, it must have some very advanced engineering, to be able to deliver the level of battery life that the iPhone is claiming.
* Amperex Technology Limited supplied the Li-Poly battery [possibly multi-sourced, though.]
* STMicro provides the LIS302 accelerometer.
* Micron got the 2-megapixel CMOS imager win.
* Samsung’s 65-nm 8-Gbyte MLC NAND flash (K9MCG08U5M) was used in the iPhone as one of the main storage devices for songs, pictures and videos. [iPod repeat component.]
* Marvell has a wireless connectivity device (88W8686 is a 90-nm WLAN part).
* Balda, a German company, scored the design win with the touch screen.
* The iPhone also implements Intel wireless flash with 32 Mbytes of NOR coupled with 16 Mbytes of SRAM for code execution.

We will look at the iPhone’s component eco-system in further detail shortly. Over the weekend, 0.5 Million iPhone units have already moved. This means, the momentum is superb, and Apple’s target of selling 10 Million units before the end of the year may well be on target. We will review the beneficiaries in the days to follow.

Acc. to Austin-based Portelligent, the cost of components for Apple is only $220. The most expensive part is the touch screen by Balda. The estimated cost of the screen is around $60. The production cost of the much less popular 4 GB version of the iPhone is $200. Apple, therefore, has engineered tremendous margins into the product, very unlike the rest of the cellular handset business!

Comments

[…] an earlier post, we looked at the major suppliers for iPhone’s components. Starting with this post, over next couple of weeks we will analyze the major players in the […]

iPhone’s Components and Samsung’s Future - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Monday, July 9, 2007 at 11:24 AM PT

[…] this post, we will be analyzing Broadcom as part of the series on the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. A related, speculative post about Broadcom written prior to the iPhone’s release may also be […]

iPhone’s Component Ecosystem: Broadcom - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 12:31 PM PT

[…] this post, we will be analyzing Broadcom as part of the series on the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. (A related, speculative post about Broadcom written prior to the iPhone’s release may also be […]

iPhone24-7.com Anything & Everything iPhone & New Gadgets » Blog Archive » Broadcom’s iPhone Win Should Bring More Business Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at 6:17 AM PT

[…] this post, we will be analyzing Marvell as part of the series analyzing major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. A related, speculative post about Marvell written prior to the iPhone’s release may also be […]

iPhone’s Component Ecosystem: Marvell - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Friday, July 13, 2007 at 6:46 AM PT

[…] In this post, we will be analyzing Marvell as part of the series analyzing major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem.( A related, speculative post about Marvell written prior to the iPhone’s release may also be […]

iPhone24-7.com Anything & Everything iPhone & New Gadgets » Blog Archive » Marvell: iPhone Win Raises Visibility, But Profitability Still Challenging Monday, July 16, 2007 at 4:56 AM PT

[…] an earlier post, we looked at iPhone’s components where I had mentioned that Texas Instruments could possibly be providing the power management […]

iPhone’s Component Ecosystem: Texas Instruments - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Tuesday, July 17, 2007 at 7:58 AM PT

[…] Mitra submits: In an earlier post, we looked at the Apple (AAPL) iPhone’s components where I had mentioned that Texas Instruments could possibly be providing the power management […]

iPhone24-7.com Anything & Everything iPhone & New Gadgets » Blog Archive » Texas Instruments Benefits From Ambiguous iPhone Connection Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 8:23 AM PT

[…] this post, we will be analyzing Micron as part of the series analyzing the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. The 2-megapixel camera mounted on the back of the iPhone is powered by an imaging chip from […]

iPhone’s Component Ecosystem: Micron - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Friday, July 20, 2007 at 7:44 AM PT

[…] post, we will be analyzing National Semiconductor as part of the series on the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. In the iPhone, National Semiconductor supplies the 24-bit RGB serial display interface which […]

iPhone Component Ecosystem: National Semiconductor - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Monday, July 23, 2007 at 6:30 AM PT

[…] In this post, we will be analyzing Micron as part of the series analyzing the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. The two-megapixel camera mounted on the back of the iPhone is powered by an imaging chip from […]

iPhone24-7.com Anything & Everything iPhone & New Gadgets » Blog Archive » iPhone Component Producer Micron - The Stock’s On An Upswing Monday, July 23, 2007 at 8:44 AM PT

[…] this post, we will be analyzing Intel as part of the series on the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. In the iPhone, Intel provides a wireless flash with 32 Mbytes of NOR coupled with 16 Mbytes of […]

iPhone’s Component Ecosystem: Intel - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 5:03 AM PT

[…] post, we will be analyzing National Semiconductor as part of the series on the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem . In the Apple (AAPL) iPhone, National Semiconductor (NSM) supplies the 24-bit RGB serial display […]

iPhone24-7.com Anything & Everything iPhone & New Gadgets » Blog Archive » National Semiconductor Should Grow With Wireless, Consumer Chip Segments Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 5:46 AM PT

[…] Sramana Mitra submits: In this post, we will be analyzing Intel (INTC) as part of the series on the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. […]

iPhone24-7.com Anything & Everything iPhone & New Gadgets » Blog Archive » Intel: A Major Player in iPhone’s Component Ecosystem Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 9:11 AM PT

[…] in Xiamen in China for €59.5 million. TPK is a manufacturer of innovative touch screen solutions. In our components series, we look at Balda […]

iPhone’s Component Ecosystem: Balda - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 9:27 AM PT

[…] post on Infineon will be the last in the series of posts analyzing the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. In the iPhone, Infineon provides the digital baseband through a PMB8876 S-Gold 2 multimedia engine […]

iPhone’s Component Ecosystem: Infineon - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Monday, July 30, 2007 at 2:56 AM PT

[…] This post on Infineon will be the last in the series of posts analyzing the major players in the iPhone’s component ecosystem. In the iPhone, Infineon provides the digital baseband through a PMB8876 S-Gold 2 multimedia engine […]

iPhone24-7.com Anything & Everything iPhone & New Gadgets » Blog Archive » Infineon’s iPhone Win and Broader Vendor Base Point in Right Direction Monday, July 30, 2007 at 9:59 AM PT

[…] iPhone’s Inside Beneficiaries provides an overview of the various players. […]

iPhone’s Component Ecosystem: Synthesis - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Tuesday, July 31, 2007 at 6:28 AM PT

[…] Here is a good link on the guts . She goes further here . […]

Howard Lindzon » Apple iPhone - What's Inside Tuesday, July 31, 2007 at 8:06 AM PT

[…] esto viene a colación de un articulo de iPod Backstage (un blog frances) que en base a los chips conocidos y desconocidos en el iPhone se especula que el iPhone podría estar basado en la plataforma mobil de telefonía de […]

iPhoneFan » Archivo del Blog » Funciones Dormidas en el iPhone Friday, August 3, 2007 at 12:27 AM PT

[…] this post, I will look at SanDisk with respect to the iPhone. SanDisk does not have any component in the iPhone, but is a beneficiary all the same because of the effect iPhone is having on the NAND flash memory […]

iPhone/iPod Beneficiary: Sandisk - Sramana Mitra on Strategy Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at 3:11 AM PT

Woah, interesting stuff

Cameron Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 2:23 PM PT