Bose Soundlink II Bluetooth Mobile Speaker Teardown

IHS Insight Perspective

Bose shoots for the high end of the wireless / portable speaker market with the ~$299 to $350 priced Soundlink II. This is the top of the stack of wireless speaker options ranging from $50 to $350 in the wireless speaker bar market.

Bose Soundlink II

Key Features/ Comments

• No speakerphone functionality
• 2 models: black with nylon cover (~$300 USD) and silver with leather cover (~$350 USD)
• Integrated 'bi-fold' alternate color covers are sold (separately) for about $40 USD each - clearly raising the profitability further for those who wish to 'personalize'.
• Line input and microUSB (which appears to not be available to users? Labeled 'service').

Bose Soundlink II Bluetooth Mobile Speaker Main Image

• With its larger size, higher power output, larger battery and higher price point, the Soundlink II is not necessarily in the same class as other units in this analysis.
• Contains additional audio conversion components from AKM Semiconductor and Cirrus Logic.
• Contains 4 speakers, but this is not terribly surprising due to its larger size and higher power.

Target Market

Consumer

Bose Soundlink II Bluetooth Mobile Speaker - Main PCB Top and Bottom

September 2012 Per press

Pricing and Availability

$299.95 to $349.95 MSRP

Street prices appear the same - seem to be 'well controlled' in the market.

Bose Soundlink II Bluetooth Mobile Speaker - Disassembly View 1

Assumed to be worldwide availability: available from multiple e-tailers at the time of writing - including Bose.com.

Volume Estimations

1,200,000 Annual Production Volume
2 Total Years

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed an Annual Production Volume of 1200000 units and a Product Lifetime Volume of 2 year(s).

Teardown volume and 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.

Bose Soundlink II Bluetooth Mobile Speaker Cost Analysis

Component pricing reflects, in most cases, the volumes provided. Areas where specific production volumes may have limited effect include smaller passive components.

Total BOM: $72.79
Top Cost Drivers below: $50.35
% of Total BOM 69%

Main Cost Drivers below

ICCNexergy Battery Pack - Li-Ion, 3-Cell, 12.45V, 2100mAh, 23Wh, w/ Charge Protection Circuit, Injection-Molded Plastic Housing & Blade Connector- (Qty: 1)
Loudspeaker Assembly - 1 Pair, w/ 4 Discrete Insulated Wires, 1 4-Position Pin Socket Connector & Foam Rubber Sleeving- (Qty: 2)
Enclosure Main, Cover -Leatherette, Sewed Canvas Cover, w/ 4 Stamped / Formed Metal Plates, 2 Labels, 1 Cloth Logo, 4 Neodymium Magnet & 2 Metal Slugs- (Qty: 1)
Ten Pao International S024RU1700100 AC Adapter - 100-240VAC 50/60Hz Input, 17V/1.0A Output, NEMA 1-15 Plug to 5ft Cord & Velcro Strap, Class V- (Qty: 1)
Enclosure, Main, Rear - Injection Molded Plastic, Painted, w/ 4 Brass Inserts- (Qty: 1)
CSR BC57H687C-GITM-E4 BlueCore5 Multimedia - Single Chip, V2.1 + EDR, 8Bit Flash, w/ Integrated 64MIPS Kalimba DSP Co-Processor & 16-Bit Stereo Codec- (Qty: 1)
Cirrus Logic CS4350-DZZ DAC - Stereo, Multi-Bit Delta-Sigma Architecture, 192KHz, w/ Integrated PLL- (Qty: 1)
Enclosure Main, Front - Injection Molded Plastic, Painted- (Qty: 1)
GuangDong Ellington Electronics 4-Layer - FR4, Lead-Free- (Qty: 3)
Texas Instruments bq24753ARHD Battery Charger - Li-ion/Li-Polymer, Synchronous - (Qty: 1)

Not Included in 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.

We do provide an Excel tab 'Overall Costs' where a user can enter their known pre and post production costs to build a per unit cost reflective of theirs actual expenditures.

Country of Origin

For the purposes of this analysis, we are assuming the following country(ies) of origin for each level of assembly, based on a combination of 'Made In' markings, and/or assumptions based on our knowledge of such equipment.

Box Contents - China
Main PCB - China
Misc Interface PCB Assemblies - China
Other - Enclosures / Final Assembly - China

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 NFC 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.

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 Complexity

Component counts by assembly and the number of assembly are indicators of design complexity and efficiency.

Component Qty: 96 - Other - Enclosures / Final Assembly
Component Qty: 160 - Main PCB
Component Qty: 13 - Box Contents
Component Qty: 119 - Misc Interface PCB Assemblies
Component Qty: 388 - Grand Total

The average component count of the 5 dual-driver designs we looked at was roughly 415 components. Considering this device has 4 drivers and still comes in at a component count 388 - below the dual driver systems, makes this design even more efficient in terms of build complexity.

Design Notes

Electronics - this design is MCU based (several of them have none) - so this design has a 16-bit Microchip MCU, a BlueCore 5 Bluetooth chip from CSR that is a little pricier than the other BlueCore 5 chips as it also has embedded NOR Flash memory (8Mbit) inside the CSR chip package. Other major choices include and AKM Semiconductor Stereo ADC, and a Cirrus Logic DAC. See the list below for 'major components' costed at over $1.

Bose Soundlink II Bluetooth Mobile Speaker - Box Contents