Samsung E340e Mobile Phone Teardown

Main Features

Mid-range clamshell camphone (VGA, rotating fixed lens - no flash unit) tri-band GSM camera (with EDGE), 1.65 Inch TFT display (128x160 65K color - monochrome secondary), and Bluetooth. Overall - very mid-range.

Samsung E340e Mobile Phone Main Image

Overview

The Samsung SGH-E340E is a mid-range phone with a few 'plus' features (EDGE, Bluetooth, good memory content, and a rotating feature for the camera), but otherwise, is every bit the mid-range phone it appears to be at first glance.

Samsung E340e Mobile Phone - Main PCB Bottom

This phone is likely to be picked up by carriers as a heavily subsidized unit - and, as it is a mid-range unit, will likely be a very popular model aimed for high volume.

Released

Not found.

Availability

Does not appear to be available in the US or Europe with major carriers as of Q1 2006. Availability uncertain.

Volume Estimations

We are using the estimate of 1.5M units for lifetime production.

Market Shares / Sector Performance

We estimate that Samsung had an average market share in 2005 (based on global unit volumes for the first 3 quarters of 2005), of approximately 13%. Furthermore, in order to better estimate our market volumes for this particular unit, we consider several factors - such as the overall growth of EDGE (in this phone), and Samsung's expected volume within that segment (using our Design Forecast Tool). ISuppli estimates that in 2005 EDGE handsets shipped 75 million units (all manufacturers worldwide), and that this figure is expected to double to 150 million units in 2006. Furthermore, we estimate that there were 3 new EDGE models in Samsung's portfolio in 2005, and we expect another 7 models introduced by Samsung in 2006.

Samsung E340e Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

Samsung E340e Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

Phone costs are largely feature driven, but also driven by general manufacturing complexity, design for manufacturing (or DFM), component counts and of course the country where they are assembled.

This group of phones are no exception and distinguish themselves primarily by features, (Bluetooth, FM radio), air interface standard (EDGE or GPRS), and also on memory (there is a large amount of disparity between the 4 phones in this respect.

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~58% of total materials costs:

Memory MCP (256Mb NOR 512Mb NAND 128Mb Ut)

Primary / Secondary Displays*

DBB/Power Mgmt Chips

Bluetooth Module (ALPS)

Blue backlight LEDs

Camera Module

Main PCB

* Does not include costs for interconnect PCB used by displays

Manufacturing and Materials**

** - The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in this analysis reflect only the direct materials cost (from component vendors and assorted EMS providers), manufacturing and test. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the manufacture of the core device itself - cost of shipping, logistics, marketing and other channel costs including not only the EMS provider's and 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 any literature, packaging, and accessories supplied with the phone itself.

Manufacturing Notes

Country of Origin / EMS provider

This Samsung SGH-E340E was produced in Korea, per the manufacturing label on the phone. Furthermore it is assumed that domestic Korean manufacturing applies not only to final assembly, but to the production of the PCBA. We still assume, however that most Asian manufacturers will utilize low cost China for production of mechanical components. Local labor rate assumptions are stated in the overview of this analysis.

Design for Manufacturing / Complexity

Overall - coming in at a component count of 574, the Samsung SGH-E340E, is second only to Nokia in this group of phones as having the lowest overall component count for a mid-range clamshell camera phone. It is generally expected that clamshell phones will have higher overall component counts and therefore cost and manufacturing complexity when compared with monoblock or candybar designs feature for feature.

From a mechanical perspective, at 109 components this model, as well as the Nokia dna SonyErcisson Z520A found themselves in a relatively tight component count range here (102 (Z520A), 108 (6101) and 109 (SGH-E340E)). It is more the Motorola V360 which appears to be the outlier here in this respect. The mechanical count is typically a good relative gage of complexity and directly correlates to the cost of hand assembly and has a direct bearing on our calculation of manufacturing cost.

Design Notes

The DBB and ABB chipset are from Philips. In past Samsung designs seen - Samsung have used Philips chipsets in the SGH-D500, SGH-X600, and SGH-E820 models. Agere seems to be the other 'typical' choice in these slots for Samsung and seem to share the table with Philips. The use of Renesas for the PAM and RF transceiver is a bit unusual, and previous Samsung phones analyzed featured Agilent, Philips Semiconductor, RF Micro Devices, and Skyworks. For RF transeciers, Samsung has also used an array of suppliers including Qualcomm, Philips Semiconductor, and Silicon Laboratories.

A CSR Bluetooth single chip solution is being used here, and not one we have seen before, however we have seen CSR in Sharp and Nokia phones. Mtekvision image processors have been used frequently in Samsung phones and we have seen them in the SGH-D500, SGH-X600, SGH-E820, SGH-E710, and SGH-E310 models. The display module is a Samsung classic combopack with primary and secondary mounted together as a unit.

Baseband

• DBB - Digital Baseband - Philips Semiconductor - PCF5213 - Nexperia multimedia baseband chip
• Power Mgmt - Philips Semiconductor - PCF50603

Memory

• Samsung MCP - KAP17SG00A-D4U4 - 256Mb NOR, 512Mb OneNAND, 128Mb UtRAM

PA/RF

• PAM - Renesas - PF09025B - Tri-Band GSM
• RF Transceiver - Renesas - HD155154 - Tri-Band GSM , ZIF

User-Interface

• Bluetooth - CSR - BC313141A19 - BlueCore3 Gateway Single Chip Bluetooth Solution
• Image/Video Processor - Mtekvision - MV3018SAQ
• FM Sound Synthesizer - Yamaha - YMU762C-QZ

Camera

• CMOS (assumed) VGA camera module - manufacturer unknown

Display

• Primary: 1.65 Inch, Transflective (Assumed) TFT 128x160 65K Color
• Secondary: 1.2 Inch, Monochrome

Samsung E340e Mobile Phone - Battery