Main Features / Overview
Low-cost 'fashion' flip-phone from Pantech. This phone is a relatively low-end GSM tri-band clamshell phone with VGA camera and MP3 player integrated (thanks to novel implementation of Yamaha YMU792 chip). Aside from the MP3 feature and feminine aesthetic (on some versions of the PG-3300), and the comical 'fatness checker' feature claimed on Pantech's website - this phone represents the low end of the mid-range and has little special to offer. Overall, it is a relatively 'small' clamshell type, which tends to be Pantech's differentiator in most products.
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Pantech PG-3300 Mobile Phone Main ImageRussia and Eastern Europe apparently as the product could not be found elsewhere and seems to only be promoted on Pantechs Russian page (and the company's main page). This may also be promoted in other emerging markets.
Released
Q3 2006 - Per secondary source.
We paid $200 for this phone unlocked in Russia, however it is mystifying that others would pay this much. We could not establish 'street' pricing for this model.
Volume Estimations
Based on Samsung's market share, and our estimates of market volume shipments by manufacturers and market segments (see iSuppli Design Forecast Tool (DFT) data below), we are assuming a total production volume for this model of 200,000 units over a two-year lifespan for the purpose of this analysis.
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 million) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis because of this.
iSuppli's Design Forecast Tool (DFT) and Market Shares
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 408 million GPRS handsets in the 2007 global market, and we further estimate unit shipments of 198 million VGA camera phones in the 2007 global market.
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 / EMS Provider
This product is labeled as Made in Korea (as Pantech Group is a Korea-based company), furthermore, we have assumed that for this model, like with Samsung and LG, that PCB was also populated in Korea, and that custom mechanicals (plastics and metals) were also sourced domestically in Korea.
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 or camera 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
Most of the phones we have seen that are either clamshell or 'slider' have higher components counts due to additional mechanical and electro-mechanical complexity owing to the 'splitting' of the design into two 'halves'.
In the case of the Pantech PG-3300, this device has a total component count of 573 of which 108 are mechanical. This puts the Pantech device in-line with competing models of similar functionality in the clamshell form factor.
The number of mechanical components usually is a direct driver of hand-assembly costs, whereas the electronic component counts (and I/O count, density, etc.) are relative metrics for the more automated portion (namely SMT assembly) of manufacturing costs.
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.
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 core design of the Pantech PG-3300 is based around an Analog Devices chipset (now a more and more rare occurrence in our teardowns). The core DBB is very similar to that found in an LG phone from Q3 2004, as well as the ABB chip. Most other components bear resemblance to previously analyzed Samsung designs (is there a relationship there?).
There are a few standout parts in this design. First is the application of the Yamaha YMU792. Although we had previously seen many many YMU76x and YMU75x FM Sound Synthesizers, those had begun to fade into obscurity, as it seems that the sound synthesis function was, more often than not, lately being integrated into the baseband chipset. However, this YMU792 is a first find and features more than just ringtone functionality, as it also features an MP3/AAC decoder. The product, although a first for us, has been around since 2006.
As for the CoreLogic Image processor: we rarely see CoreLogic, but have seen similar devices, again in the somewhat old now LG C2200 (Q4 2004) and much more recently in the very low-end NEC e132 (Q2 2007). Most discrete image processors seen in handsets are from STMicroelectronics or Epson.
It is interesting that a design that seems relatively old (on the whole) still features a more recent chip such as the Yamaha YMU792.
The following is a summary of the major components used in the Pantech PG-3300 design:
Main PCB
Baseband / Power Management
- Digital Baseband Processor - Analog Devices - AD6527ABCZ
- ABB - Analog Baseband / Power Management - Analog Devices - AD6535ABC
Memory
- MCP - AMD - S71PL256NC0HFW5B - 256Mb NOR Flash, 64Mb PSRAM, 110nm, 3V
RF/PA
- RF Transceiver - Silicon Laboratories - Si4210-GM - Quad-Band, GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- PAM - Skyworks - SKY77328 - Quad-Band, GSM850/EGSM900/DCS1800/PCS1900
User Interface
- Audio Chip - Yamaha - YMU792 - Mobile Audio Synthesizer - Integrated MP3 Decoder
Display Area PCB
- Image Processor - CoreLogic - CL761AP
Camera
- Camera Module - McNex
- Image Sensor - Micron Technology - Unknown PN#- VGA, CMOS, 1/6-inch Format - 3.6um x 3.6um Pixel Size, 2.30mm x 1.73mm Active Image Area
Display
- Primary: 1.5-inches Diagonal, 262K Color, TFT, 132x132 Pixels
- Secondary: 1-inches Diagonal, 65K Color, STN, 96x96 Pixels
