Apple (AAPL) iPhone 5 Teardown Confirms $199 BOM, Suppliers Mostly the Same - IHS
Tweet Send to a Friend
Get Alerts AAPL Hot Sheet
Price: $445.15 +0.68%
Rating Summary:
52 Buy, 12 Hold, 1 Sell
Rating Trend: = Flat
Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 11 | Down: 18 | New: 13
Rating Summary:
52 Buy, 12 Hold, 1 Sell
Rating Trend: = Flat
Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 11 | Down: 18 | New: 13
Trade AAPL Now!
IHS issued the details of their Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone 5 teardown. There were a few surprises, but most of the suppliers remained the same.
First, IHS said the teardown confirms the bill of materials (BOM) and manufacturing cost were essential in-line with with their expectations. The low-end 16GB model has a BOM of $199, while the high-end 64Gbyte version is estimated at $230.
While most of the component suppliers for the iPhone 5 were similar to the iPhone 4S, "there are some critical changes to product design and parts that enable major upgrades that improve user experience," notes IHS senior principal analyst Andrew Rassweiler.
iPhone 4S suppliers making a return engagement with the iPhone 5 include Samsung, Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), Murata, Dialog, RF Micro (Nasdaq: RFMD), Texas Instruments (NYSE; TXN), STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ: CRUS), Avago (NASDAQ: AVGO), Skyworks (NASDAQ: SWKS), NXP (NASDAQ: NXPI) and AKM, although almost every part has been updated.
New suppliers including SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), which contributed the NAND flash memory in the specific iPhone 5 dissected by the IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service. IHS said this is first time that SanDisk NAND has been found in an iPhone examined by them. However, "with the NAND component being a commodity part available from multiple suppliers, Samsung, Hynix and Toshiba also could serve as Apple's sources for this memory."
Elpida likewise has replaced Samsung as the supplier of the SDRAM in the individual iPhone 5 analyzed by IHS.
The battery in the iPhone 5 is supplied by Sony Corp.—a role taken by Amperex Technology in the iPhone 4S.
One major change to the iPhone 5 is in its baseband processor. While Qualcomm remains the supplier of this critical component, the iPhone 5 integrates the company’s MDM9615M and RTR8600 parts; the 4S, in comparison, employed the Qualcomm MDM6610 and RTR8605 devices. This is being utilized to allow support for the LTE air standard, IHS notes.
IHS said the addition of LTE also had other implications for the iPhone 5 design. "The support for 4G LTE in the iPhone 5 added a new level of complexity to the radio frequency (RF) front end, so much so that Apple had to create two different models of the iPhone to accommodate their wireless carrier partners," said Wayne Lam, senior analyst for wireless communications at IHS. "This represents a departure from Apple's approach of offering only a single model for the iPhone 4S."
Join StreetInsider.com FREE and get immediately alerted when news breaks on your stocks and other market items - JOIN NOW
*NEW - Download StreetInsider's FREE iPhone and iPad App - Click Here
First, IHS said the teardown confirms the bill of materials (BOM) and manufacturing cost were essential in-line with with their expectations. The low-end 16GB model has a BOM of $199, while the high-end 64Gbyte version is estimated at $230.
While most of the component suppliers for the iPhone 5 were similar to the iPhone 4S, "there are some critical changes to product design and parts that enable major upgrades that improve user experience," notes IHS senior principal analyst Andrew Rassweiler.
iPhone 4S suppliers making a return engagement with the iPhone 5 include Samsung, Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), Murata, Dialog, RF Micro (Nasdaq: RFMD), Texas Instruments (NYSE; TXN), STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ: CRUS), Avago (NASDAQ: AVGO), Skyworks (NASDAQ: SWKS), NXP (NASDAQ: NXPI) and AKM, although almost every part has been updated.
New suppliers including SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), which contributed the NAND flash memory in the specific iPhone 5 dissected by the IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service. IHS said this is first time that SanDisk NAND has been found in an iPhone examined by them. However, "with the NAND component being a commodity part available from multiple suppliers, Samsung, Hynix and Toshiba also could serve as Apple's sources for this memory."
Elpida likewise has replaced Samsung as the supplier of the SDRAM in the individual iPhone 5 analyzed by IHS.
The battery in the iPhone 5 is supplied by Sony Corp.—a role taken by Amperex Technology in the iPhone 4S.
One major change to the iPhone 5 is in its baseband processor. While Qualcomm remains the supplier of this critical component, the iPhone 5 integrates the company’s MDM9615M and RTR8600 parts; the 4S, in comparison, employed the Qualcomm MDM6610 and RTR8605 devices. This is being utilized to allow support for the LTE air standard, IHS notes.
IHS said the addition of LTE also had other implications for the iPhone 5 design. "The support for 4G LTE in the iPhone 5 added a new level of complexity to the radio frequency (RF) front end, so much so that Apple had to create two different models of the iPhone to accommodate their wireless carrier partners," said Wayne Lam, senior analyst for wireless communications at IHS. "This represents a departure from Apple's approach of offering only a single model for the iPhone 4S."
Join StreetInsider.com FREE and get immediately alerted when news breaks on your stocks and other market items - JOIN NOW
*NEW - Download StreetInsider's FREE iPhone and iPad App - Click Here
You May Also Be Interested In
- Jefferies Bumps Zumiez (ZUMZ) Numbers Up, But Remains on Sidelines
- Needham & Company Boosts Numbers on Infoblox (BLOX) on Strong Q3
- Imperial Capital Boosts Price Target on Dick's (DKS); 'Best-of-Breed'
Create E-mail Alert Related Categories
Analyst Comments
Login with Facebook
Sign up for StreetInsider Free!
Receive full access to all new and archived articles, unlimited portfolio tracking, e-mail alerts, custom newswires and RSS feeds - and more!
