Panasonic NTT DoCoMo P-01A Mobile Phone Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Panasonic P-01A is a high-end handset designed for NTT DoCoMo's 3G network commissioned under the "Prime Series line of handsets. The quad band GSM / dual band WCDMA world phone features a Viera branded 3.1 inch color display boasting an unheard of 6000:1 contrast ratio, 1-Seg TV tuner and a 5 megapixel CMOS camera. Also common within this new breed of NTT DoCoMo feature phones, the P-01A comes standard with GPS capabilities and RFID functionalities (works FeliCa branded services). The HSDPA enabled handset is data capable up to 7.2Mbps.

NTT DoCoMo's 3G networks boast some of the fullest featured wireless handset devices for the Japanese market and the Panasonic sets new marks and records for device complexity and silicon content. Unlike other (higher volume) handsets designed for European and US markets, the Panasonic handset BOM weighs in at a significant premium over comparable high end handsets iSuppli has previously analyzed.

Panasonic NTT DoCoMo P-01A Mobile Phone Main Image

The NTT DoCoMo Panasonic P-01A is an offering within the ""Prime" series of high end feature handsets. The target demographic is primarily Japanese mobile handset users.

Released

Per press releases, first release in the Japanese Market on Nov. 2008.

Panasonic NTT DoCoMo P-01A Mobile Phone - Main PCB Top

Pricing - Mobile handset pricing typically has little bearing on the true market value of the device due to the fact that service carrier invariably use subsidies to incentivize consumers to commit to long term service contracts. However, based on our understanding, the unsubsidized cost of the handset is between 60,000 and 64,000 Japanese Yen or $650 to $700 at the time of writing (January 2009).

Availability - As a pseudo-private labeled handset for NTT DoCoMo, the Panasonic P-01A is available exclusive to the carrier and to the Japanese market.

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 500K 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.

Panasonic NTT DoCoMo P-01A 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 shipment of 105 million HSDPA handsets globally for the year of 2008. All estimates are based on the assumption of 2 year life span

Panasonic NTT DoCoMo P-01A Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~64% of total materials cost

Panasonic - MN2CS0038 (UniPhier 4MBB+) - Baseband / Application Processor - ARM Core, 500MHz, W-CDMA/HSDPA(7.2Mbps), GSM/GPRS, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, 1.8V, 45nm, PoP

Display Module Value Line Item - 3.1' Diagonal, 16.7M Color TFT, 854 x 480 Pixels

Primary Camera Module Value Line Item - 5.1MP CMOS, 1/3.2' Format, Auto Focus Lens

Samsung Semiconductor - KBU24000HM-A439 - MCP - 1Gb Mobile DDR (Assumed) + 512Mb MLC NOR Flash, PoP

Murata - SUMUA-LD020 - TV Tuner Module - ISDB-T

Panasonic - 10-Layer - Aramid Substrate, Stacked Via (ALIVH), Lead-Free

Asahi Kasei - AK1531A - RF Transceiver - Quad-Band WCDMA, HSDPA 7.2Mbps

GPS Receiver

Panasonic - AN32057N1D1 - ASIC - Power Management

Secondary Camera Module Value Line Item - VGA CMOS, 1/10' Format, Fixed Lens

Renesas - ASIC B

Display Module Value Line Item - 0.92' Diagonal, Monochrome OLED, 128 x 36 Pixels

Samsung Semiconductor - KFN4G16Q2A-DEB8 - Flash - OneNAND, 4Gb (Muxed 2 Die Stack), SLC, 83MHz, 1.8V

Panasonic - AN32036N2D - ASIC - Power Management

Panasonic - AN32034N2B - ASIC

Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 800mAh

Bluetooth Module - Contains CSR BC41B143A06U Single-Chip Bluetooth Solution, V2.0+EDR

High Intensity White (Qty:15)

Total BOM Costs $234.13

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/EMA Relationships / Manufacturing

Although, as part of iSuppli's ""Global OEM Manufacturing and Design Analysis (GOMDA)", we track major OEM and ODM relationships, Panasonic represents such a small player on the global scale, we do not track their sales or manufacturing relationships.

It is assumed for the purposes of this analysis, that either Panasonic are building these in house, or with a Japan-based EMS provider.

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Based on markings, the unit was assembled in Japan. Furthermore, due to the low assumed production volume, we have assumed that custom mechanicals (plastics, metals, etc.) were also sourced in Japan.

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 modules), 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

Japanese mobile handsets are renowned for their intricate designs, high precision and overall build quality. The Panasonic P-01A handset is no exception. By all accounts, the handset - through its inherent design and user interface - exhibit a level of complexity higher than typical 3.5G handsets that the rest of the western world markets are not accustomed to. In fact, the Panasonic P-01A sets new records feature handsets with a component count of 1274 parts. Typically, this level of complexity is reserved for high-end smartphones or wireless PDAs.

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 Japan.

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.

Design Notes

The Panasonic P-01A is one of the highest IC density handset we have encountered. Despite chemical IC encapsulation and detailed microscopic analysis, many of the private labeled ICs presented challenges when it comes to obtaining product information and specifications. Therefore, in some case, we had to assume the functionality of the major ICs.

The P-01A appears to be a custom design by Panasonic evident in the privately labeled baseband processor and ASIC chip located in the user interface functional area. Besides exceptional parts such as the 3.1 inch color display and 5MP CMOS sensor, the handset is endowed with GPS, RFID and 1 Seg TV tuner IC parts. Overall, the Panasonic/NTT DoCoMo design elevates the cost of the phone to levels we would expect from more feature filled higher end smartphones with greater processing power and memory capacities.

Mechanically, the Panasonic is designed as a dual flip for both landscape and traditional flip phone operations. Interestingly, the P-01A implements an-orientation aware keypad which orientates the direction of the keypad numbers based on these 2 flip modes.

Here is a summary of the major components used in the Panasonic P-01A mobile handset design:

Main PCB

Baseband - Memory

• Baseband / Application Processor - Panasonic - MN2CS0038 (UniPhier 4MBB+)
• Flash - Samsung Semiconductor - KBU24000HM-A439

ABB / Power Management

• ASIC - Panasonic - AN32036N2D
• Power Management IC - Rohm - BH6785

User Interface

• ASIC - Panasonic - AN32034N2B

RF Transceiver

• RF Transceiver - Asahi Kasei - AK1531A
• RF Transceiver - Renesas - R2A60167BG

Memory

• Flash - Samsung Semiconductor - KFN4G16Q2A-DEB8

TV Tuner

• TV Tuner Module - Murata - SUMUA-LD020 (ISDB-T)

Display

• Display Module - 3.1' Diagonal, 16.7M Color TFT, 854 x 480 Pixels

Camera

• Primary Camera Module - 5.1MP CMOS, 1/3.2' Format, Auto Focus Lens

Panasonic NTT DoCoMo P-01A Mobile Phone - Enclosure Disassembly