Nokia 1110 Mobile Phone Teardown

Main Features

Entry-level dual-band GSM (not GPRS enabled) w/ 1.6 Inch Monochrome display, 20 chord polyphonic ringtones and 32Mb of flash memory.

Nokia 1110 Mobile Phone Main Image

Marketing/Positioning

Overview

Having recently analyzed the utterly basic Nokia 1100, we were suprprised that in the latter release of the Nokia 1110 the press release referred to the 'emerging market' focus for the Nokia 1110 model which would furthermore be aimed at the pay-as-you-go segment. The surprise was because we thought that it was hard to get much more basic than a Nokia 1110 with a 1.3 inch monochrome display, 16Mb of flash memory, no GPRS enabling, and non-polyphonic ringtones. It was all the more suprising to see that in fact the Nokia 1110 was not just a Nokia 1100 with a different product number and plastics. The Nokia 1110 actually has a few 'upgrades' when compared with the Nokia 1100 - the 1110 has a slightly larger (but still monochrome) display, more memory (probably only because it makes no sense to buy 16Mb density anymore), and polyphonic ringtones.

Furthermore, from an electronic design point of view this phone is not, at it's core, the same as the Nokia 1100, featuring a different DBB chip (higher pin count, smaller die), a different ABB chip (lower pin count), a different PAM, and RF transceiver - in summary - it's a different design - not just a respin. So the 1110 may be part of the same family as the 1100, but clearly from a different father.

Target Market

Per Nokia's own press-release, the focus is on developing countries - ""aimed at first time users and consumers in growth markets like Africa".. The 1110 seems to be a phone exclusively aimed at the prepaid, or 'pay-as-you-go' market. In a recent June 2005 press release (from Nairobi, Kenya), Nokia further announced a 'prepaid tracker' service (which the 1110 and Nokia 1600 models are preprogrammed to work with) ""that lets prepaid subscribers effortlessly keep track of their prepaid balance and call expenses".

Released

Per Nokia press release June 2, 2005, this phone was released in Q2 of 2005.

Nokia 1110 Mobile Phone (iSi) - Main PCB Bottom

Africa and some eastern European countries such as Russia, Slovakia, and Romania. May also be available in other markets.

Volume Estimations

We are using a relatively robust estimate of 17M units for lifetime production. This assumption is reinforced not only by Nokia's overall market shares, but because of the fundamental nature of the phone and sizze of the potential market.

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).

Market Shares / Sector Performance

Per iSuppli estimates and market share tracking over the last several years, we see that Nokia has been struggling to maintain and further augment it's leading position in the marketplace. As of the first two quarters of 2005, Nokia had an average of roughly 32% of worldwide phone shipments (as a percentage of total unit sales). This is an improvement from 2004, where Nokia's share had dropped as low as the mid 20% range in Q2 of 2004. The trend over the last 4 years shows a struggle with share erosion as the general trend from 2001 until beginning of 2004, with this trend reversing (showing Nokia gaining ground against competitors) since Q2 2004.

It is also important to note that GPRS phones represent about half of all unit sales for handsets in 2004-05 - non GPRS enabled (GSM only) phones represent a small (9% estimated in 2005) of total worldwide mobile handset shipments which are estimated at 780M units for 2005.

Nokia 1110 Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

Phone costs are largely feature driven, but also driven by general manufacturing complexity, design for manufacturing (or DFM), component counts and of course the country where they are assembled. This phone is no exception, and furthermore, because it is a Nokia, it is, as a general rule less complex to manufacture involving a lower number of component, and those components tend to be 'easy-to-assemble' modular, or snap-in components facilitating hand-assembly and hand-assembly times.

The country of origin of this phone could not be ascertained, and it was therefore assumed to be manufactured in China.

Main Cost Drivers Representing 56% of total materials costs:

DBB - TI - NMP #4377159

Display - 1.6 Inch Monochrome

Battery (3.7V, 850mAh)

ABB - STM - NMP #4376441

Flash - 32Mb - Spansion

RF Transceiver - STM - Dual Band

Manufacturing and Materials*

* - 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, and any literature, packaging, and accessories supplied with the phone itself.

Manufacturing Notes

Country of Origin

The country of origin of this phone could not be ascertained, and it was therefore assumed to be manufactured in China, furthermore, we have assumed that this applies not only to final assembly and box stuffing, but to PCBA assembly and the manufacture of custom plastics and metals.

Design for Manufacturing / Complexity

As with virtually all of the Nokia candybar-style phones that we have analyzed, the 1110 exhibits a design simplicity that results in a low mechanicals parts count and very efficient assembly. Because this model in particular is designed for very low cost, it effectively represents the most basic approach to design that can be achieved, without sacrificing quality or reliability.

An example of this is the single-piece keypad; where higher-end models will perhaps utilize a multi-element design incorporating plastic keys, a metal support plate, a rubber substrate, etc., the 1110 keypad is one single rubber piece. While perhaps not providing the best key-feel to the user, the reliability is not compromised.

Design Notes

As is the standard for Nokia - all of the major chips are Nokia ASICs - however - the core chips (ABB, DBB, RF Transceiver, etc.) are not identical chips to those previously seen, in fact it seems we see less frequently highly similar ASICs between recently analyzed Nokia phones. As mentioned earlier, this Nokia bears little resemblance to other Nokia designs (from a chip / PN# point of view).

Baseband

• DBB - Digital Baseband - Nokia ASIC - Texas Instruments - NMP# 4377159
• ABB - Analog Baseband - Nokia ASIC - ST microelectronics - NMP#4376441

Memory

• Flash - 32Mb - AMD-Spansion - S29NS032J0LBFW00

RF/PA

• PAM - Nokia ASIC - RF Micro Devices - NMP# 4355815
• RF Transceiver - Nokia ASIC - ST Microelectronics - NMP# 4380103

Display

• 1.6 Inch diagonal Monochrome STN, 68 x 96 pixels

Nokia 1110 Mobile Phone (iSi) - Main PCB Top