IHS teardown reveals many iPhone 5 components change, but most suppliers remain the same

A physical teardown of the iPhone 5 confirms the bill of materials (BOM) and manufacturing cost reported last week in an IHS iSuppli virtual teardown. The low-end model with 16GB of NAND flash memory carries a BOM of US$199, with the cost rising to US$207.00, when manufacturing expenses are added in. For the 32GB version of the iPhone 5, the BOM cost increases to US$209.00, while the 64GB version is estimated at US$230.00.

These teardown assessments are preliminary in nature, account only for hardware and manufacturing costs and do not include other expenses such as software, licensing, royalties or other expenditures, IHS noted.

"The iPhone 5 exhibits a great deal of similarity to the iPhone 4S in terms of component suppliers," said Andrew Rassweiler, senior principal analyst, teardown services, for IHS. "But beyond this superficial resemblance, there are some critical changes to product design and parts that enable major upgrades that improve user experience. These range from the faster applications processor, to the larger display, to the high-speed 4G LTE air interface. And beyond some of the high-profile changes that bring obvious benefits in performance and features, there are myriad upgrades and enhancements to virtually every component and subsystem in the iPhone 5."

iPhone 4S suppliers making a return engagement with the iPhone 5 include Samsung, Qualcomm, Murata, Dialog, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Cirrus Logic, Avago, Skyworks, NXP and AKM. Nevertheless - from the advanced, US$17.50 A6 processor manufactured by Samsung, down to the relatively simple US$0.62 electronic compass from AKM Semiconductor - almost every part has been updated.

New suppliers include SanDisk, which contributed the NAND flash memory in the specific iPhone 5 dissected by the IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service. This is first time that SanDisk NAND has been found in an iPhone examined by the IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service. In the iPhone 4S teardown, the NAND supplier was Samsung. 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. However, Samsung and Hynix could be supplying this widely available memory part. Compared to the iPhone 4S, the density of this part has been doubled to 1GB, up from 512MB, giving it a total cost of US$10.45.

The battery in the iPhone 5 is supplied by Sony - a role taken by Amperex Technology in the iPhone 4S. The cost of the battery in the iPhone 4S is estimated at US$4.99.

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. The new Qualcomm parts were utilized to allow support for the LTE air standard.

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."

"While most manufacturers make great effort to simplify designs by minimizing the total number of mechanical parts and fasteners in their products, Apple appears to be going in the other direction with the iPhone 5," said Kevin Keller, senior principal analyst, teardown analysis, for IHS. "The iPhone 5 incorporates even more mechanical parts than previous iPhone designs, resulting in a very complex assembly. But Apple can do this and still produce the iPhone 5 at such low costs due to its capability to leverage its vast army of low-cost labor."

Source: IHS, compiled by Digitimes, September 2012

Article translated by Jessie Shen