Sagem myV-55 Mobile Phone Teardown

Main Features

Entry-level candybar form, triband GSM, VGA/CMOS camera phone with 64 channel polyphonic ringtones.

Sagem myV-55 Mobile Phone Main Image

This is an entry-level GSM camera phone, sold by Vodafone as a "Pay as You Go phone. Typically these pay as you go phones are targeted at a youth market - and as such they have included features important to the target demographic such as the basic VGA.CMOS camera and 64 channel polyphonic ringtones (this functionality is key to the service providers cashing in on the extremely hot ringtones market). However, this phone doesn't go 'all the way' with media-rich features that higher-end youth-oriented phones are focusing on.

Furthermore this particular model seems to be the Vodafone 'flavor' of Sagem's myX5-2 model (see links).

Sagem myV-55 Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

Sagem's Competitive Purchasing Power - Our cost analysis assumes that Sagem is performing at par with other tier 1 competitors in the handset marketplace with respect to purchasing savvy and leverage, however, in reality we have probably been quite generous in this assumption. Given Sagem's market share and overall volumes - if anything, this analysis may understate their actual purchasing costs - however, we understand that Sagem shops parts aggressively - resulting in the above assumption. Aggressive purchasing tactics, however, generally result in poor vendor relationships which tends to backfire on purchasers when the supply chain gets tight in an up market.

Sagem myV-55 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Top

Display (1.8 Inch CSTN, 128x160 65K)

Memory Content (128Mbit NOR flash + 32Mb PSRAM)

Baseband Chips

RF/PA Chips

Battery (3.7V, 920mAh, Li-Ion)

Camera

Subtotal for these devices

Manufacturing Notes

The label says ""Made in EU". When the exact country is not listed, we always assume that manufacturers will drift towards the lowest cost countries within their region of operation - in this case Eastern Europe. We assumed that all manufacturing (PCB board stuffing and phone assembly) took place there - but also that custom plastics and metals (enclosures, etc.) were also manufactured there. Only the charger was identified as being manufactured outside of Europe (China) - the vast majority of chargers are currently coming from China. Since Sagem's core operations are still in France - it is possible that some of the manufacturing took place in France or higher labor regions of operation - this could have a significant impact on manufacturing costs raising overall totals to around 10 - 12% of total cost, rather than the current 7% figure.

The overall volume production assumption (700K units for the product lifetime) was based on Sagem's relatively low world market penetration and limited scope of operation regionally. (iSuppli estimates Sagem's overall market share in handsets at 2% worldwide).

Sagem myV-55 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Bottom

This design shares little to no commonality with other Sagem designs we have seen to date. In fact the other designs were so similar and this one so unlike them that we raise the question - is this a Sagem design? This might be an ODM phone, or simply a different Sagem design. The design is simple and low-end with few frills aside from the camera (so inexpensive to add nowadays) and the 64 channel polyphonic ringtone generator from Rohm.

• Baseband - Texas Instruments ASICs - DBB (D71685A), ABB (TWL3016) - TI dominates the baseband position in most GSM phones we have analyzed
• Memory - Spansion MCP - 128 Mb NOR flash, 64 Mb PSRAM - low end nowadays - 256 Mb+ typical content - but extra memeory not really necessary given overall limited feature set and low res display.
• RF/PA - Silicon Labs Si4205-BM RF Transceiver, and Skyworks SKY77324-12 - both are quad band parts - but phone is tri-band only.
• Display - 1.8" CSTN 128x160 65K color - Low end - manufacturer unknown - most phones onto TFT by now - but fits the overall target for this phone.
• Camera Module - VGA/CMOS - Sharp socket mount camera module - socket mount camera modules are extremely easy to assemble and typically seen in Nokia phones, but rarely elsewhere.