Motorola ROKR Z6m Mobile Phone Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Motorola ROKR Z6m is the one of many iterations of the ROKR family of music-oriented handsets by Motorola. The CDMA handset shares a very similar design as the RIZR family of handsets which was the first Motorola handset to offer a slider mechanism on a thin and narrow form factor reminiscent of yet another similarly themed handset design - KRZR flip phones.

The EV-DO enabled Motorola handset comes with a 3.5mm audio jack and provision for up to 2GB of removable microSD memory to live up to its music capable credentials. The dual band CDMA handset is capable of up to 3Mbps download speeds through EV-DO rev 0 standards. It also features a 2MPx integrated camera and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity which slots the device in the mid-level feature phone category with respect to the general handset population.

Motorola ROKR Z6m Mobile Phone Main Image

Mainstream mobile phone consumers with an orientation towards music functionalities.

Released

Per press releases, first release in December 2007.

Motorola ROKR Z6m Mobile Phone - Main PCB Top

Pricing - Since Cricket relies heavily on pre-paid customer, most handset they offer do tend to sell at retail prices. At the time of writing (Dec. 2008), the Motorola ROKR Z6m retails for $249. However, there are currently generous $120 combined rebate and activation discount which can reduce the cost of the device for new customers to $129.

Availability - available to select markets within the Cricket national coverage areas.

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 2M units.

As a reminder, teardown volume production assumptions are primarily used for our cost analysis in terms of amortized NRE and tooling costs, especially for custom components specific to the model being analyzed (mechanical components especially). Unless assumed volumes are different by an order of magnitude, minor changes in volume (say 1 million vs. 2) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis because of this.

Motorola ROKR Z6m Mobile Phone - Main PCB Bottom

As part of iSuppli's Design Forecast Tool (DFT), we forecast handset shipments by major design feature and manufacture, as well as the number of design starts a manufacturer will have by feature set.

iSuppli estimates unit shipments of 242 M CDMA EVDO handsets in 2008 global market. We further estimate 279 million units of 2 megapixel camera phones to ship in the 2008 global market. All estimates are based on a 2 year product life span assumption with an overall global market share of 14% for Motorola.

Motorola ROKR Z6m Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~68% of total materials cost

Qualcomm - MSM6550A - Baseband Processor - Single-Chip, GSM/GPRS, CDMA2000 1X/CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, GPS & Bluetooth, 90nm

Display Module Value Line Item - 2.0' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 240 x 320 Pixels

Camera Module Value Line Item - 2.0MP, 1/4' Format, Fixed Lens

Samsung Semiconductor - K5D1213ACE-D075 - MCP - 512Mb NAND Flash, 512Mb Mobile SDRAM, 1.8V

BT50 - Battery - Li-ion, 3.7V, 910mAh

Multek Hong Kong - 8-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 2+4+2

Cypress Semiconductor - CY7C68053-56BAXI - Microcontroller - Single Chip, USB2.0 Transceiver, Smart SIE(Serial Interface Engine), 8051 Microprocessor, GPIF(General Programmable Interface)

Qualcomm - RFR6500 - RF Receiver - ZIF, Dual Band CDMA2000 1X/CDMA2000 1X EV-DO, 800/1900MHz, GPS

Qualcomm - PM6650 - Power Management IC w/ USB-OTG Transceiver

Friwo - FMP5334A - Charger - 5.0V, 550mA

Enclosure, Display, Top - Co-Molded Plastic and Stamped/Formed Metal, Chromed, w/ 2 Pressed-In Threaded Stands

Fujitsu - Bluetooth Radio - Contains Broadcom BCM2004 Bluetooth Radio V2.0 for Qualcom Chipset

Skyworks - SKY77408-18 - Transmit Module - PAM, CDMA 800MHz, w/ Integrated Duplexer

TriQuint Semiconductor - TQM663017A - Transmit Module - PAM, CDMA 1900MHz, w/ Integrated Duplexer

Keypad Assembly - Laser Etched Metal Keypad on Silicone Rubber Substrate, w/ 3 Metal Clips

2-Layer, Flex Kapton

Qualcomm - RFT6150 - RF Transmitter - ZIF, Dual-Band CDMA2000 1X/CDMA2000 1XEV-DO

Total BOM Cost $68.38

What Is Not Included in our Cost Analysis

The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in this analysis reflect ONLY the direct materials cost (from component vendors and assorted EMS providers), AND manufacturing with basic test. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the material manufacture of the core device itself - cost of intellectual property, royalties and licensing fees (those not already included into the per component price), software, software loading and test, shipping, logistics marketing and other channel costs including not only EMS provider and 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 and exceptionally in some circumstances the packaging and literature as well.

Manufacturing Notes

OEM/ODM/EMS Relationships / Manufacturing

According to iSuppli's "Global OEM Manufacturing and Design Analysis - Mobile Handsets Q1 2008, Motorola has a rather mixed manufacturing profile. It is estimated that Motorola produces 52% of their handsets in-house while outsourcing the remainder 48%. The majority of Motorola's A, O and Z series are produced internally while the RAZR, KRZR, SLVR lines are manufactured using EMS providers. Among their manufacturing partners, Motorola splits the work amongst Compal, Foxconn and Chi Mei.

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Based on markings, the unit was assembled in China. Furthermore, we have assumed that custom mechanicals (plastics, metals, etc. were also sourced in China.

Country of origin assumptions relate directly to the associated cost of manufacturing, where calculated by iSuppli. In the cases of 'finished' sub-assemblies (such as displays and camera), we do not calculate internal manufacturing costs, but rather assess the market price of the finished product in which case country of origin assumptions may or may not have a direct effect on pricing.

Remember also that labor rates are applied directly only to hand inserted components and systems in our bill of materials, and although regional assumptions do, these new rates do not have a direct effect on our modeled calculations of placement costs for automated SMD assembly lines. ""Auto" inserted components (such as SMT components) placement costs are calculated by an iSuppli algorithm which allocates a cost per component based on the size and pincount of the device. This calculation is affected by country or region of origin as well.

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The Motorola ROKR Z6m has an overall component count of 730 excluding box contents, of which, 155 are mechanical in nature.

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, to some extent, decreased in this case because of assumed labor rate applied for China.

Note that manual labor has a much smaller effect on auto-insertion assembly lines (for the Main PCB, for example), where manufacturing costs are much more capital equipment intensive and driven by these investment costs.

Motorola ROKR Z6m Mobile Phone - Enclosure Disassembly

Design Notes

The core of the ROKR Z6m design is the Qualcomm MSM6550 chipset. This is the same baseband processor we have come across within the more feature filled LG Voyager VX-10000 CDMA handset. As it is typical with designs featuring Qualcomm chipsets, most of the other core silicon is also Qualcomm. This device uses a Qualcomm power management solution (PM6650) and RF Receiver and Transmitter (RFR6500 and RFT6150).

Here is a summary of the major components used in the Motorola ROKR Z6m design:

Main PCB

Baseband

• Baseband Processor - Qualcomm - MSM6550A

Memory

• MCP - Samsung Semiconductor - K5D1213ACE-D075

Battery / Power Management

• Power Management IC - Qualcomm - PM6650

RF Transceiver

• RF Receiver - Qualcomm - RFR6500
• RF Transmitter - Qualcomm - RFT6150

User Interface

• Microcontroller - Cypress Semiconductor - CY7C68053-56BAXI
• Bluetooth Radio - Fujitsu

PA

• Transmit Module - Skyworks - SKY77408-18
• Transmit Module - TriQuint Semiconductor - TQM663017A

Camera

• Camera Module - 2.0MP, 1/4' Format, Fixed Lens

Display

• Display Module - 2.0' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 240 x 320 Pixels

"

Motorola ROKR Z6m Mobile Phone - Box Contents