Magellan Maestro 4250 Portable Navigation Device Teardown

Main Features / Overview

Mid-to-High-end portable automotive navigation system in a very thin (~18mm thick) envelope. The Magellan Maestro 4250 features a 4.3 touch-screen 64K Color WQVGA TFT display, an internal 2200mAh rechargeable Li-ion battery, Bluetooth capability (for hands-free phone calls with Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones), an integrated RDS-TMC receiver for real time LIVE traffic and an automatic night view function that dims the display at night. In addition the 4250 features an SD card expansion slot in addition to 16Gb of internal NAND flash.

The Magellan Maestro 4250 appears to be the top-of-the-line in the Magellan's line up with quite a few features while keeping it within the ""pocket-sized" segments. In fact, per Magellan's press release, it is also ""the thinnest GPS unit in industry" with its 17.8mm thickness,

Magellan Maestro 4250 Portable Navigation Device Main Image

Users who demands portability, a large screen and ""premium" features such as live traffic information

Released

Available October 2007 per Magellan's press release

Pricing and Availability

Suggested retail price $499 USD per Magellan's web site; however, it is offered by multiple e-tailers online for ~ $299 USD.

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a 2-year lifetime production volume of 500K units (with no changes to hardware - specifically the enclosures).

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.

Magellan Maestro 4250 Portable Navigation Device - Main PCB Top

Market / Sector Performance

Per iSuppli's ""Global OEM Manufacturing and Design Analysis (GOMDA)", iSuppli estimates that the PND market will ship nearly 33 million standalone units in the 2008 global market with a 2006 to 2011 compound annual growth rate of 32.4%. Furthermore, iSuppli estimates that Magellan are among the lagging players in the standalone PND device segment with less than 4% market share (as of 2006).

Function / Performance

No testing was performed on this device.

Magellan Maestro 4250 Portable Navigation Device Cost Analysis

Main Cost Drivers

AU Optronics - A043FL01 - Display Module - 4.3' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 480 x 272 Pixels, w/ Touch Screen - Qty(1)

Samsung Semiconductor - S3C2443XL-40 - Microprocessor - ARM920T 32Bit RISC Core, 0.13um CMOS Process - Qty(1)

SMPWGPS1 - Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 2200mAh, w/ Integral 3-Wire Harness & 3-Position Socket - Qty(1)

Samsung Semiconductor - K9LAG08U0M-PCB0 - Flash - NAND, MLC, 16Gb, 3.3V - Qty(1)

SiRF - GSC3e/LP - GPS - SiRFstarIII, Single Chip, 50MHz ARM7TDMI CPU, 1Mb SRAM, 20-Channel GPS, 3V, 10 GPIO Ports - Qty(1)

Hynix - HY5S7B2ALFP-6 - SDRAM - Mobile, 512Mb (4Banks x 4M x 32bits), 166MHz - Qty(1)

Compeq - 8-Layer - FR4 - Qty(1)

CSR - BC41B143A07-IRK-E4 - BlueCore4 ROM - Single Chip Bluetooth Solution, V2.1+EDR - Qty(1)

P005WA0510 - Charger - 5V, 1A - Qty(1)

Windshield Mounting - Qty(1)

Realtek - ALC5610-GR - Codec - Audio, AC97, w/ Integrated Touch Screen controller - Qty(1)

Enclosure, Main, Top - Injection Molded Flame Retardant ABS-Polycarbonate, Silkscreened, Clear Coat, w / 5 Brass Inserts - Qty(1)

Car Charger - 5.0V, 1.2A - Qty(1)

Enclosure, Main, Bottom - Injection Molded Flame Retardant ABS-Polycarbonate, Sliver Painted, w/ 2 Brass Inseerts - Qty(1)

Total w/ Manufacturing $87.21

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 and 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.

Magellan Maestro 4250 Portable Navigation Device - Main PCB Bottom

Manufacturing Notes

Magellan's Relationships / Manufacturing

Per iSuppli's ""Global OEM Manufacturing and Design Analysis (GOMDA)", Magellan outsources 100% of production to two players: MiTAC, and Kinpo with MiTAC representing the bulk of the business. MiTAC was the #1 worldwide manufacturer of PND's in 2006.

Country of Origin

This Magellan Maestro 4250 was ""Made in the Philippines" per markings on the box. The main PCB was labeled made in Taiwan. However, with respect to other subassemblies, unless specifically labeled, it was assumed that other custom mechanical components (plastics, metals, etc.) are from suppliers 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. This is not known - and these are merely assumptions.

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 Bluetooth 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.

Magellan Maestro 4250 Portable Navigation Device - Enclosure Disassembly

Design for Manufacturing / Complexity

The Magellan Maestro 4250 features a total component count (excluding box contents) of 465 components, of which 65 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.

Design Notes

The design is a typical PNDs one with a major GPS Single-Chip (SiRF GSC3e/LP) and an applications processor (Samsung ARM920T Core). On top of that, it features a CSR BlueCore4ROM chip for hands free phone operation and a Silicon Laboratories FM receiver for traffic information. Memory content seems adequate for this level of PNDs with 2GB NAND (of course it features a SD card slot for more) for storage and 512Mb SDRAM for running applications. Overall the design is very common given the features set.

Here is a summary of the major components used in Magellan Maestro 4250 design.

Main PCB

CPU

Microprocessor - ARM920T 32Bit RISC Core, 0.13um CMOS Process - Samsung Semiconductor - S3C2443XL-40

User Interface

Codec - Audio, Stereo, AC'97 - Realtek - ALC5610-GR

MCU - smaRTClock, 2.0V, 12-bit ADC - Silicon Laboratories - C8051F410

FM Receiver - Silicon Laboratories

Memory

SDRAM - Mobile, 512Mb (4Banks x 4M x 32bits), 166MHz - Hynix - HY5S7B2ALFP-6

Flash - NAND, MLC, 16Gb, 3.3V - Samsung Semiconductor - K9LAG08U0M-PCB0

Flash - NOR, 4Mb (256Kb x 16), 90ns - SST - SST39VF400A-70-4C-M1QE

Power Management

Power Management IC / Li-Ion Battery Charger - Single Chip, Up to 2A Total Current - Texas Instruments - bq24070RHLx

Bluetooth PCB

BlueCore4 ROM - Single Chip Bluetooth Solution, V2.1+EDR - CSR - BC41B143A07-IRK-E4

Display Module

AU Optronics - A043FL01 - 4.3' Diagonal, 480 x 272 Pixels, 262K Color TFT, w/ Touch Screen

"

Magellan Maestro 4250 Portable Navigation Device - Box Contents