Google Nexus One carries US$174.15 materials cost, says iSuppli
The Nexus One, sold with the Google brand name but manufactured by High Tech Computer (HTC), carries a bill of materials (BOM) of US$174.15, based on a preliminary estimate from iSuppli. This total comprises only hardware and component costs for the Nexus One itself and does not take into consideration other expenses such as manufacturing, software, box contents, accessories and royalties.
Google is selling unlocked versions of the Nexus One at an unsubsidized price of US$529, or at US$179 with a two-year service contract from T-Mobile.
"With the Nexus One, Google has taken the most advanced features seen in recent smartphone designs and wrapped them up into a single sleek design," said Kevin Keller, senior analyst, competitive analysis, for iSuppli. "Items like the durable unibody construction, the blazingly fast Snapdragon baseband processor and the bright and sharp AMOLED display all have been seen in previous phones, but never before combined into a single design. This gives the Nexus One the most advanced features of any smartphone ever dissected by iSuppli – a remarkable feat given the product's BOM is similar to comparable products introduced during the past year."
Return of the Snapdragon
At the heart of the Nexus One is Qualcomm's Snapdragon baseband processor that sports a 1GHz clock speed.
"The Snapdragon was first noted in a previous smartphone torn down by iSuppli – the Toshiba TGO1 – which is based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system," Keller said. "However, the Android 2.1 operating system used in the Nexus One better capitalizes on the Snapdragon's fast performance, making the user interface and applications run very quickly.
This processing muscle also gives the Nexus One some advanced capabilities, most notably high-definition 720p video playback."
iSuppli estimates the cost of the Snapdragon at US$30.50, making it the most expensive single component in the Nexus One. With the inclusion of the Snapdragon and the associated power-management and RF transceiver chips, Qualcomm commands 20.4% of the Nexus One's BOM, giving it the biggest dollar share of any component supplier in the design.
AMOLED display
One of the Nexus One's signature features is its 3.7-inch AMOLED display, which is superior to the conventional LCDs used in most smartphone designs in a variety of ways. Compared to LCDs, AMOLEDs deliver a larger color gamut, a faster response time, a thinner form factor and reduced power consumption.
Prior to the Nexus One, AMOLED technology appeared in another smartphone, Samsung's I7500, which features a 3.2-inch display. However, the Nexus One uses a larger display, marking the first use of a 3.7-inch OLED that iSuppli has seen.
"The 3.7-inch AMOLED display on the Nexus One delivers a stunning picture," Keller said.
With an estimated cost of US$23.70, the AMOLED display is supplied by Samsung Mobile Display.
Heavenly unibody
The Nexus One also sports a unibody design, which means that the smartphone's enclosure comprises a single part. Such a design approach provides greater structural rigidity, providing more protection to the internal electronics in case the phone is dropped. On the other hand, a unibody tends to drive up manufacturing costs.
Besides Apple's iPhone, this marks the first unibody smartphone design that iSuppli has noted.
With the Nexus One, HTC has taken a major cue from Apple in the enclosure design, making it the most "Apple-like" product yet seen from any in the competition, and others are likely to follow suit.
Noises off
The Nexus One also features a dual microphone design used for cancellation of background noise. This feature also was noted in Motorola's Droid, another Android-based smartphone. To implement the noise cancellation function, the Nexus One employs a specialized audio voice processor chip from Audience Semiconductor, the first time iSuppli has observed a part from this manufacturer in any electronic product.
Lost memories
The Nexus One includes a large quantity of DRAM, employing 4Gb (512MB) of Samsung Semiconductor's DDR DRAM. This compares to 1Gb or 2Gb for comparable smartphones. The large quantity of DRAM is required to store executable code to support the fast performance of the Snapdragon processor, and allows for better application performance, said iSuppli.
While the Nexus One features 4Gb of internal NAND flash memory, the same amount as the Droid and the Toshiba TG01, it is bundled with a comparatively small MicroSD card of 4GB. NAND flash is used for storage of user content and media on the smartphone. The Droid and TG01 are supplied with 16GB and 8GB, respectively. This allows Google to keep its overall BOM costs down, yet still allows the user to upgrade as needed. Wile the 4GB of internal flash pales against the iPhone's 16GB, it has the advantage of expandability afforded by the MicroSD card slot where the iPhone has no external storage facility.
Samsung is the supplier of all the memory in the Nexus One, giving it US$20.40, or 11.7%, of the product's total BOM.
Synaptics gets in touch
Other notable design winners in the Nexus One include Synaptics, which supplies the phone's capacitive touchscreen assembly. iSuppli estimates the cost of the assembly at US$17.50, or 10% of the total BOM. While the module and the Android operating system support multitouch input, the capability is deactivated on the Nexus One.
iSuppli: Preliminary bill-of-materials for Google Nexus One
Component
Manufacturer
Description
Price
Baseband Processor
Qualcomm
Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS HSPA, 1GHz CPU, 600MHz Digital Signal Processor
$30.50
Memory
Samsung Semiconductor
Multichip Package (4Gbit NAND Flash + 4Gbit Mobile Double Data Rate (DDR) DRAM
$20.40
Bluetooth/WLAN
Broadcom
Bluetooth / WLAN / FM Transmitter/Receiver (802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, 65nm)
$8.20
Power Management
Qualcomm
Power Management IC (w/ Integrated USB Transceiver)
$2.50
Radio Frequency Transceiver
Qualcomm
RF Transceiver (ZIF, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band WCDMA/HSDPA)
$2.50
Power Amplifier
Skyworks & Others
4 Power Amplifier Modules (Skyworks & Other)
$2.20
Power Management
Texas Instruments
Power Management & Li-Ion Charger
$1.20
Display
Samsung Mobile Display
Display (3.7" AM-OLED)
$23.50
Touchscreen
Synaptics
Touchscreen Assembly (Capacitive Multitouch)
$17.50
Electrical
Misc. Electronic Components (Small IC's, Discrete Semiconductors, Passives, etc.)
$16.30
Camera
Camera (5.0 MP Auto Focus)
$12.50
MicroSD Card
MicroSD Card (4GB)
$8.50
Electro-Mechanical
Misc. Electromechanical Components (Connectors, Acoustics, Antennas, etc.)
$7.50
Electro-Mechanical
PCB's
$6.60
Mechanical
Misc. Mechanical Components (Plastics, Metals, Hardware, Shielding, Insulation, etc.)
$6.20
Battery
Battery (1400mAh, 3.7V)
$5.25
Mechanical
Main Enclosure Housing (Machined Aluminum Unibody)
$2.80
Total BOM (Materials Only)
$174.15
Google is selling unlocked versions of the Nexus One at an unsubsidized price of US$529, or at US$179 with a two-year service contract from T-Mobile.
"With the Nexus One, Google has taken the most advanced features seen in recent smartphone designs and wrapped them up into a single sleek design," said Kevin Keller, senior analyst, competitive analysis, for iSuppli. "Items like the durable unibody construction, the blazingly fast Snapdragon baseband processor and the bright and sharp AMOLED display all have been seen in previous phones, but never before combined into a single design. This gives the Nexus One the most advanced features of any smartphone ever dissected by iSuppli – a remarkable feat given the product's BOM is similar to comparable products introduced during the past year."
Return of the Snapdragon
At the heart of the Nexus One is Qualcomm's Snapdragon baseband processor that sports a 1GHz clock speed.
"The Snapdragon was first noted in a previous smartphone torn down by iSuppli – the Toshiba TGO1 – which is based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system," Keller said. "However, the Android 2.1 operating system used in the Nexus One better capitalizes on the Snapdragon's fast performance, making the user interface and applications run very quickly.
This processing muscle also gives the Nexus One some advanced capabilities, most notably high-definition 720p video playback."
iSuppli estimates the cost of the Snapdragon at US$30.50, making it the most expensive single component in the Nexus One. With the inclusion of the Snapdragon and the associated power-management and RF transceiver chips, Qualcomm commands 20.4% of the Nexus One's BOM, giving it the biggest dollar share of any component supplier in the design.
AMOLED display
One of the Nexus One's signature features is its 3.7-inch AMOLED display, which is superior to the conventional LCDs used in most smartphone designs in a variety of ways. Compared to LCDs, AMOLEDs deliver a larger color gamut, a faster response time, a thinner form factor and reduced power consumption.
Prior to the Nexus One, AMOLED technology appeared in another smartphone, Samsung's I7500, which features a 3.2-inch display. However, the Nexus One uses a larger display, marking the first use of a 3.7-inch OLED that iSuppli has seen.
"The 3.7-inch AMOLED display on the Nexus One delivers a stunning picture," Keller said.
With an estimated cost of US$23.70, the AMOLED display is supplied by Samsung Mobile Display.
Heavenly unibody
The Nexus One also sports a unibody design, which means that the smartphone's enclosure comprises a single part. Such a design approach provides greater structural rigidity, providing more protection to the internal electronics in case the phone is dropped. On the other hand, a unibody tends to drive up manufacturing costs.
Besides Apple's iPhone, this marks the first unibody smartphone design that iSuppli has noted.
With the Nexus One, HTC has taken a major cue from Apple in the enclosure design, making it the most "Apple-like" product yet seen from any in the competition, and others are likely to follow suit.
Noises off
The Nexus One also features a dual microphone design used for cancellation of background noise. This feature also was noted in Motorola's Droid, another Android-based smartphone. To implement the noise cancellation function, the Nexus One employs a specialized audio voice processor chip from Audience Semiconductor, the first time iSuppli has observed a part from this manufacturer in any electronic product.
Lost memories
The Nexus One includes a large quantity of DRAM, employing 4Gb (512MB) of Samsung Semiconductor's DDR DRAM. This compares to 1Gb or 2Gb for comparable smartphones. The large quantity of DRAM is required to store executable code to support the fast performance of the Snapdragon processor, and allows for better application performance, said iSuppli.
While the Nexus One features 4Gb of internal NAND flash memory, the same amount as the Droid and the Toshiba TG01, it is bundled with a comparatively small MicroSD card of 4GB. NAND flash is used for storage of user content and media on the smartphone. The Droid and TG01 are supplied with 16GB and 8GB, respectively. This allows Google to keep its overall BOM costs down, yet still allows the user to upgrade as needed. Wile the 4GB of internal flash pales against the iPhone's 16GB, it has the advantage of expandability afforded by the MicroSD card slot where the iPhone has no external storage facility.
Samsung is the supplier of all the memory in the Nexus One, giving it US$20.40, or 11.7%, of the product's total BOM.
Synaptics gets in touch
Other notable design winners in the Nexus One include Synaptics, which supplies the phone's capacitive touchscreen assembly. iSuppli estimates the cost of the assembly at US$17.50, or 10% of the total BOM. While the module and the Android operating system support multitouch input, the capability is deactivated on the Nexus One.
iSuppli: Preliminary bill-of-materials for Google Nexus One
Component
Manufacturer
Description
Price
Baseband Processor
Qualcomm
Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS HSPA, 1GHz CPU, 600MHz Digital Signal Processor
$30.50
Memory
Samsung Semiconductor
Multichip Package (4Gbit NAND Flash + 4Gbit Mobile Double Data Rate (DDR) DRAM
$20.40
Bluetooth/WLAN
Broadcom
Bluetooth / WLAN / FM Transmitter/Receiver (802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, 65nm)
$8.20
Power Management
Qualcomm
Power Management IC (w/ Integrated USB Transceiver)
$2.50
Radio Frequency Transceiver
Qualcomm
RF Transceiver (ZIF, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band WCDMA/HSDPA)
$2.50
Power Amplifier
Skyworks & Others
4 Power Amplifier Modules (Skyworks & Other)
$2.20
Power Management
Texas Instruments
Power Management & Li-Ion Charger
$1.20
Display
Samsung Mobile Display
Display (3.7" AM-OLED)
$23.50
Touchscreen
Synaptics
Touchscreen Assembly (Capacitive Multitouch)
$17.50
Electrical
Misc. Electronic Components (Small IC's, Discrete Semiconductors, Passives, etc.)
$16.30
Camera
Camera (5.0 MP Auto Focus)
$12.50
MicroSD Card
MicroSD Card (4GB)
$8.50
Electro-Mechanical
Misc. Electromechanical Components (Connectors, Acoustics, Antennas, etc.)
$7.50
Electro-Mechanical
PCB's
$6.60
Mechanical
Misc. Mechanical Components (Plastics, Metals, Hardware, Shielding, Insulation, etc.)
$6.20
Battery
Battery (1400mAh, 3.7V)
$5.25
Mechanical
Main Enclosure Housing (Machined Aluminum Unibody)
$2.80
Total BOM (Materials Only)
$174.15
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