Motorola L6 Mobile Phone Teardown

Main Features

Low to Mid-Range Quad-Band GSM/GPRS candy bar phone with a very thin design. It comes with a couple of very "basic features that nowadays phones have including a single VGA camera, Bluetooth capability and a 65K Color Display.

Motorola L6 Mobile Phone Main Image

The L6 is a member of the SLVR family of phones. The SLVR family of phones from Motorola basically takes the popularity of the RAZR lines form factor and transforms from a clam-shell line to a candy bar line, of which the the L6 is part. The L6 has also been recently supplanted to some extent by the more recent released SLVR L7. The L6 tries to mimic the look and feel of the RAZR with an ultra thin body. The phone is very basic in terms of features. Emphasizing mostly on its RAZR-feel outlook, it appears to be basically a candy bar version of the RAZR.

Target Market

Mainstream audience looking for a thin candybar alternative to the clamshell RAZR. This is really just a complementary extension of the RAZR line.

Released

Press release from April 2005, claimed the L6 was then available froom Cingular wireless.

Pricing and Availability

Selling in grey market for low $100's at the time of writing (Aug 2006).

Volume Estimations

Motorola has a large, commanding market share, and achieved incredible volume and visibility with the RAZR, which has since been succeeded to some extent by other 'thin' models, specifically the SLVR, and Q. In fact, currently, iSuppli estimates that Motorola will have a worldwide market share of 20% in terms of unit shipments, up significantly from our 2004 estimate of approximately 15%. We expect Motorola to gradually grow this position to about 21% of global unit shipment market share in 2007.

Our production volume assumptions are derived from several sources including iSuppli's Design Forecast Tool (DFT) and other wireless area research. Based on iSuppli's estimates we arrived at our assumption of approximately 22.2 million units produced over the production lifespan (generally assumed at 2 years for handsets). For the purposes of this analysis, we increased this estimate to 25 million units based on customer feedback.

As a reminder, volume production assumptions primarily affect our cost analysis in terms of amortized NRE and tooling costs, especially for custom components specific to the model being analyzed (mechanical components especially).

Design Forecast Tool Notes

Per iSuppli research we estimate total Motorola shipments of 16 million units of quad-band GPRS handsets in 2006; with the introduction of 6 quad-band GPRS models in 2006, followed by our decreased estimate of 4 quad-band GPRS models introduced in 2007. GPRS unit productions are on the wane, as they become replaced by newer EDGE models.

Function / Performance

No testing was performed on the Motorola L6

Motorola L6 Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

Main Cost Drivers Representing approximately 72% of total materials costs

Intel - RD38F4050L0YBQ0 - MCP - 256Mb NOR Flash + 64Mb PSRAM

Freescale - SC29336VKP - DBB - Digital Baseband Processor

Wintek - WD-X1216X3-6CLWo - Display Module - 1.75' Diagonal, 65K CSTN, 128x160 Pixels

ATI - IMAGEON 2240 - Multimedia Co-processor

Camera Module - VGA CMOS, 1/6' Format - Fixed Lens

Bluetooth Module

Freescale - MC13890 - ABB - Analog Baseband / Power Management

Motorola - SNN5779A - Battery - Li-ion - 3.7V, 700mAh

Freescale - MMM6025 - Transmit Module - PAM - Quad-Band GSM/GPRS, w/ Integrated Antenna Switch

High Intensity Blue LEDs

Freescale - MC13877F - RF Transceiver - Quad-Band GSM/GPRS, ZIF, Integrated VCO

Unitech - - 8-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 2+4+2

Motorola - SPN5189A - Charger - 5.0V, 550mA

Materials and Manufacturing*

* 0 The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in this analysis reflect only the direct materials cost (from component vendors and assorted EMS providers), manufacturing and test. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the manufacture of the core device itself - cost of shipping, logistics, marketing and other channel costs including not only the OEM's margin, but that of other resellers. Our cost analysis is meant to focus on those costs incurred in the manufacture of the core device (phone, battery, charger, some accessories, and packaging and literature) itself.

Manufacturing Notes

Country of Origin / EMS provider

This Motorola L6, like the L7 was produced (final assembly, that is) in China, per markings on the device itself. Considering Motorola's tendancy to produce what seems to be the bulk of their handsets now in low cost China, so with repesct to subassemblies, unless specifically labeled, it was assumed that PCBAs and plastics, etc are also from Motorola suppliers and EMS providers in China. We generally assume that where not noted, that sub-assemblies and some custom manufactured items (plastics, mechanicals, etc.) will be produced in the lowest cost region in the absence of proof to the contrary. We therefore assumed that the PCBA was assembled in China, and that the custom mechanical components were also produced in China. This is not known - and these are merely assumptions.

Design for Manufacturing / Complexity

The Motorola L6 has a total component count of 557 components. In comparison the SLVR L7 has 630 components. Both phones are within the norms of competing candybar phones of similar functionality. Both the L6 and L7 are candybar phones, however the L6 features a greater number of mechanical components, 96 vs. 64 components in the L7.

Component counts have a direct bearing on the overall manufacturing cycle times and costs, and also can increase or decrease overall yields and re-work. Our calculations of manufacturing costs factor counts and more qualitative complexities in the design. The cost of manufacturing is also high because of the assumed relatively modest production volumes (which increase the per unit amortized cost of certain NRE, tooling and other up-front charges), and the country of final assembly, being China, where our assumed loaded skilled (technical) and semi-skilled labor rates is the lowest worldwide. (We recently significantly increased the loading factor on our China labor rates, per industry feedback and a recent study by a major worldwide EMS provider.

Design Notes

All of the major ICs, DBB, ABB, PAM & RF transceiver IC, in the Motorola L6 are from Freescale. Although this sounds very reasonable, many of the Motorola phones that we analyzed do not employ solution from Freescale in the RF and PAM sections. In the L6, the whole design is assumed to be a custom version of Freescale's 2.5G platform. In the user interface side, it features an ATI Imageon 2240 image processing IC and a Broadcom BCM2035KWB Bluetooth IC which are both very common among recent Motorola phones such as the PEBL, RAZR & V360.

Here is a summary of the major components used in Motorola L6 design:

Main PCB

Baseband

• DBB - Digital Baseband Processor - Freescale - SC29336VKP
• ABB - Analog Baseband / Power Management - Freescale - MC13890

Memory

• Intel - RD38F4050L0YBQ0 - MCP - NOR Flash 256Mb + PSRAM 64Mb

PAM

• PAM - Freescale - MMM6025 - Quad-Band GSM/GPRS, w/ Integrated Antenna Switch

RF Transceiver

• RF Transceiver - Freescale - MC13877F - Quad-Band GSM, ZIF

User Interface

• ATI - IMAGEON 2240 - Multimedia Co-Processor
• Broadcom - BCM2035KWB - Bluetooth Baseband - Single Chip HCI Solution

Camera Module

• Camera Module - Manufacturer Unknown
• Image Sensor - Micron Technology - MT9V112 - VGA, CMOS, 1/6' Format - 3.60um x 3.60um Pixel Size, 2.30mm x 1.73mm Active Image Area

Display Module

• Wintek - WD-X1216X3-6CLWo - Display Module - 1.75' Diagonal, 65K CSTN, 128x160 Pixels

"

Motorola L6 Mobile Phone - Device Internal View