HTC Tilt 2 ST7377 Mobile Phone Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The HTC Tilt2 is a Windows Mobile based smartphone design with a slide-out/tilt-up 3.6 inch resistive touchscreen display. The Tilt2 (ST7377) is the follow on model to the original HTC Tilt 8925 which is also a tri-band UMTS (850/1900/2100 MHz) and quad band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) mobile phone. The HTC Tilt 2 features a 3.2MP auto focus camera, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and expandable memory via microSD. Much like its predecessor, the HTC Tilt 2 relies heavily on a Qualcomm design (MSM7201A) in conjunction with 2Gb of Mobile SDRAM and 4GB of NAND flash memory. As with other high end devices today, the HTC smartphone implements a dual mic noise cancellation / voice improvement system powered by an Audience voice processor chip.

HTC Tilt 2 ST7377 Mobile Phone Main Image

Smartphone Users

Released

Per press release, first release on the AT&T network on October 2009 .

HTC Tilt 2 ST7377 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Top

Pricing - At the time of writing (May 2010), the HTC is offered on AT&T's website for $399 "no commitment or $199 with a 2 year contract.

Availability - assumed global

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 400K 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.

HTC Tilt 2 ST7377 Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~70% of total materials cost

Display Module Value Line Item - 3.6' Diagonal, 16.7M Color TFT, 480 x 800 Pixels

Qualcomm - MSM7201A - Baseband Processor - Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps, A-GPS, Integrated 528MHz ARM11 Applications Processor & ARM9 Microprocessor

Samsung Semiconductor - KBY00N00HM-A448 - MCP - 4Gb NAND Flash + 2Gb Mobile SDRAM (Estimated)

Camera Module Value Line Item - 3.2MP CMOS, 1/4' Format, Auto Focus Lens

Broadcom - BCM4325FKFBG - Bluetooth/WLAN/FM - Single Chip, WLAN IEEE802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, w/ FM RDS/RBDS Receiver

Touchscreen Assembly - 4-Wire Resistive, 3.6' Diagonal, ITO Film Over ITO Film, w/ Clear Plastic Faceplate, Glass Backplate, & Integral Flex PCB

UniMicron Technology - 8-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 2+4+2, Lead Free

Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 1500mAh, 5.55Wh

Charger - 5V, 1000mA, Flip Plug

Enclosure, Display, Bottom / Sliding Mechanism Assembly - Injection Molded Plastic, Insert-Molded Stamped / Formed Metal, 10-Piece, Spot-Welded, w/ 16 Springs, Printed

Career Tech - 2-Layer - Flex Kapton, Lead-Free, w/ Stiffener

Qualcomm - PM7540 - Power Management IC - w/ Integrated USB Transceiver

Qualcomm - RTR6285 - RF Transceiver - ZIF, Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Tri-Band UMTS Transceiver, HSDPA, w/ Integrated GPS Receiver & Receive Diversity

Total BOM Cost $139.26

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

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

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

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 display module), 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 HTC Tilt2 has an overall component count of 1036 (excluding box contents), of which 778 components reside on the Main PCB assembly. Compared to other smartphones we've analyzed in the past, the HTC occupies the upper extremes of the complexity curve (~1100 parts).

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 Taiwan.

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.

HTC Tilt 2 ST7377 Mobile Phone - Disassembly 2

Design Notes

Here is a summary of the major components used in the HTC Tilt2 design:

Main PCB

Baseband

• Baseband Processor - Qualcomm - MSM7201A

Bluetooth/WLAN/FM

• Bluetooth/WLAN/FM IC - Broadcom - BCM4325FKFBG

Power Management

• Power Management IC - Qualcomm - PM7540

Memory

• Samsung Semiconductor - KBY00N00HM-A448 - 4Gb NAND Flash + 2Gb Mobile SDRAM (Estimated)

RF Transceiver

• RF Transceiver IC - Qualcomm - RTR6285
• Antenna Switch - Sony - CXM3519ER

User Interface

• Voice Processor - Audience - A1010A01
• Microcontroller - Atmel - ATmega48A-MMH, Qty. 2

Display

• Display Module - 3.6' Diagonal, 16.7M Color TFT, 480 x 800 Pixels

"

HTC Tilt 2 ST7377 Mobile Phone - Box Contents