Sagem Myx1-2 Teardown

Main Features

Entry-level barebones dual-band GSM (not GPRS enabled) phone with 1.6 monochrome screen, 16 note polyphonic ringtones, and 16Mb flash memory.

Sagem Myx1-2 Main Image

Overview

The MyX1-2 phone rivals the Nokia 1100 and 1110 in it's simplicity at the lowest end of the phone spectrum. Only the Nokia 1100 and this phone feature, for example 16Mb of memory. On a more superficial note - it is also one of the least attractive phones we have seen since the early Motorola models. However, in fairness to SAGEM, this phone is a natural fit for the target market selected.

Sagem Myx1-2 - Main PCB Top

Developing countries / emerging markets: per SAGEM's Herve Philippe - the myX1-2 is being marketed ""in order to answer the emerging markets needs, such as Latin America, Asia or Africa but also for replacement offers of more mature markets." It seems that allowing your CFO with English as a second language to write your press releases is ill-advised. However, in a clever bit of semantics, Mr. Philippe also states that the MyX1-2 is ""targeting mainly the voice centric segment."

Released

Per SAGEM's press release Feb 14, 2005, this phone was released in Q1 of 2005.

Availability

Latin America, Asia and Africa primarily.

Volume Estimations

We are using the estimate of 2.5M units for lifetime production. As a reminder, volume production assumptions primarily affect our cost analysis in terms of amortized NRE and tooling costs, especially for custom components specific to the model being analyzed (mechanical components especially).

Market Shares / Sector Performance

We estimate that SAGEM had an average market share in 2004 (based on global unit volumes), of approximately 3.8%, and that that figure was already more like 4% in the first quarter of 2005. Furthermore, in order to better estimate our market volumes for this particular unit, it is important to note that GPRS phones represent about half of all unit sales for handsets in 2004-05 - non GPRS enabled (GSM only) phones represent a small (9% estimated in 2005) of total worldwide mobile handset shipments which are estimated at 780M units for 2005.

Sagem Myx1-2 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.

Main Cost Drivers Representing 67% total materials costs:

DBB - Texas Instruments

ABB - Texas Instruments

Display - 1.55' Diagonal Monochrome

ASIC - SAGEM

Battery - Li-Ion - 3.7V, 680mAh

PCB - 6-Layer

RF Transceiver - Silicon Laboratories

Charger - Astec

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 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

Although this phone has some of the earmarks of previously analyzed Chinese phones (such as the 'wallpapaer' background on the display), and we are assuming that this phone is probably the result of the SAGEM / Bird joint-venture in China - this phone is labeled as having been manufactured in the European Union. We are assuming therefore, that this is being manufactured as cheaply as possible in Europe - therefore we are assuming an Eastern European manufacturing location such as Hungary. Furthermore, in the absence of other proof we are assuming that the PCBA assemblies and the custom mechanical components (plastics and metals) are also manufactured locally in the EU.

Design for Manufacturing / Complexity

The MyX1-2 features a total of only 290 components in total, of which 194 are passive components, and 55 are mechanical. These are two critical component categories as each tend to drive the overall manufacturing cost - one from an auto-insertion point of view, and the other from a hand-assembly point-of-view. Overall - at 290 components, the SAGEM MyX1-2 is completely inline with other basic phones in terms of overall component count and complexity. Only two other phones in our history have lower component counts - the Nokia 3510i (290), and the Motorola C350 (257).

Overall the MyX1-2 is as about simple as can be.

Design Notes

SAGEM has a joint venture with Chinese manufacturer Bird. This joint-venture seems to be the primary source, as far as we can tell, for the SAGEM designs. Furthermore, many of the SAGEMs bear a lot of resemblance to previously analyzed Chinese phones we analyzed recently. Given Siemens recent selling to BenQ, it seems likely that smaller share players such as SAGEM would go this route, and other regional European players will either end up following this lead, or giving up on designs altogether by buying ODM handsets and private labeling, which is, we suspect the case already for companies such as Alcatel.

The DBB and ABB chipset are the same used in the Motorola C115 (analyzed in parallel with this device), however in general this design shares chipset commonality with previously analyzed SAGEM phones MyX-7 and MyV-75 (Vodafone).

Baseband

• DBB - Digital Baseband - Texas Instruments - D751749GHH - Used in Motorola C115
• ABB - Analog Baseband - Texas Instruments - TWL3014C - Used in Motorola C115, myX-7, myV-75
• Sagem - NPI ASIC

Memory

• Flash - AMD - AM29DL161DT90VI - 16Mb

RF/PA

• PAM - Skyworks - SKY77325-12
• RF Transceiver - Silicon Laboratories - Si4210-GM - Similar Chip Si4200-GM Used in myX-7, Blackberry 7230

Display

• 1.55' Diagonal 96 x 64 Pixel Green Back-Lit B&W

"

Sagem Myx1-2 - Battery