IHS Insight Perspective
The Lenovo LePhone K800 is one of the 2 Lenovo's top of the line K series phones (sold in China only) and is one of the 3 OEMs' smartphones models that bears the "Intel Inside logo having the x86 platform based Atom processor. As such, the Lenovo K800 marks significant milestone for both Lenovo and Intel. For Lenovo, it means a step further into the smartphones space after PCs . For Intel, it represents the first significant commercial design win in both the Applications Processor slot (the Atom processor) and the Baseband slot (the X-Gold 626 platform which Intel acquired from Infineon).
Unlike the majority of smartphones that employ ARM based applications processors from major suppliers such as Samsung, TI, or Qualcomm, the K800's Intel Atom processor is an x86 design derived from CPU technology from PCs as a result of Intel's investment of software and hardware development work. Having said that, the K800 is still not expected to be a volume mover but is rather a technical showcase that Intel has finally gotten skin in the mobile game and a cornerstone for Lenovo to get further into the smartphones space.
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The Lenovo K800, unlike many other smartphones, such as the HTC ONE X and Samsung Galaxy SIII which have various versions supporting different air interface and even having different applications processors, comes in only one favor equipped with Intel's 32nm Z2460 Atom based 1.6GHz applications processor with built-in 400MHz GPU and the X-Gold 626 wireless chipset supporting up to HSPA+21Mbps.
The K800 runs in Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a 4.5" 1280x720 IPS display, 16GB Storage and 1GB DRAM, 8MP Auto Focus Rear Camera and 1.3MP Front Camera which are pretty standard in the high-end smartphones space. Other notable features include the ability to show images or videos on a bigger screen via WIDI (Wireless-Display) or MHL (Mobile High-Definition Display) with optional adapter(s).
Design Significance
The Lenovo K800 marks the first significant commercial design win for Intel in both the applications processor and the wireless chipset slot. Overall design is virtually identical to the Lava Xolo x900 which is also based on the Intel Reference design. Except for the applications processor, the design is a common Intel's X-Gold 626 (XMM6260) platform which is found in many HSPA+ devices such as the HTC ONE X, Samsung Galaxy SIII and Galaxy Note.
Outlook and Implications
The significance of the Lenovo K800 is not the volume that it can sell but rather the technical aspect of Intel being able to penetrate into the mobile processors segment in addition to wireless chipsets within the mid-high end smartphones market particularly in emerging markets such as, in this case, China. In fact, according to IHS iSuppli's ""Design Forecast Tool DFT™ - Mobile Handsets H1 2012", Lenovo is expected to ship approximately 3.2 million mid-high end smartphones in 2012 which is less than 1% of the global shipment in the same category. However, we do forecast the number to grow to 3.9 million in 2013 which outpace the growth of the smartphones market as a whole.
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High end smartphone market
Released
May 30th 2012 per press release
Announced jointly by Lenovo and Intel for general availability
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3299rmb ~($519USD) MSRP
China
Available only in China
Volume Estimations
800,000 Total Units
1 Total Years
For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed an Annual Production Volume of 800000 units and a Product Lifetime Volume of 1 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.
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Per IHS iSuppli's Design Forecast Tool: Smartphones are becoming the defining product that drives sales for handset OEMs, especially as entry-level and feature-phones fall by the wayside. In 2011, smart phones accounted for 33% of the 1.4 billion legal handsets sold; and by 2015 smartphones will grow to 60% of the total market. The future of the wireless handset industry will be shaped by trends in the smartphone segment.
Per IHS iSuppli's Design Forecast Tool: The total handset shipment will be around 1.44 billion in 2012, of which 655 million will be smartphones and Lenovo will contribute 7.85 million (1.2%) towards the smartphone market in the same year. However, in 2013 the number would jump to 11.2 million which represent a 42% increase compared to a 27% growth in the global smartphones market.
Cost Notes
Total BOM: $178.69
Top Cost Drivers below: $126.52
% of Total BOM 71%
Main Cost Drivers below
Sharp Display Module - 4.5' Diagonal, 16.7M Color TFT, 1280 x 720 Pixels, 78um x 78um Pixel Size, 99.6mm x 56.0mm Viewable Area- (Qty: 1)
Hynix H26M54001DQR Flash - eMMC NAND, 16GB, MLC- (Qty: 1)
Intel Z2460 Applications Processor - Intel Atom Z2460, 1.6GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, 400MHz 2D/3D Graphics Core, 1080P Video Decode/Encode, 32nm, PoP- (Qty: 1)
Elpida EDB8064B2PB-8D-F SDRAM - Mobile DDR2, 1GB, PoP- (Qty: 1)
Sunny Optical Technology Primary Camera Module - 8MP, CMOS, 1/3.2' Format, Auto Focus Lens- (Qty: 1)
Display Window / Touchscreen - 4.5' Diagonal, Capacitive, Tampered Glass Over ITO Glass, Painted, Printed, w/ Integral Flex PCB- (Qty: 1)
Epcos D7002 BT/FM/GPS/WLAN Module - Bluetooth 3.0 / FM / GPS / IEEE802.11a/b/g/n, Contains TI WL1283 & Triquint BT/WLAN Tx Module- (Qty: 1)
Intel PMB9811 Baseband / Power Management - Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA+, ARM Core, 40nm- (Qty: 1)
Evertek Electronic 10-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, Any Layer Stacked Via, Lead-Free- (Qty: 1)
BL189 Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 1900mAh, 7.03Wh- (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.
Manufacturing Notes
Lenovo uses different partners to manufacture its devices. For example, it has a joint venture with Compal in China and a relationship with Wistron in China to build notebook PCs. Our research indicates that Foxconn and Qisda are 2 of the fews that builds smartphones for Lenovo but there is no confirmation as to who builds this particular model.
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
Camera Assembly - China
Display / Touchscreen - China
Main PCB - China
Misc 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 Camera Assembly and Display / Touchscreen Module), 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: 843 - Main PCB
Component Qty: 22 - Display / Touchscreen
Component Qty: 51 - Camera Assembly
Component Qty: 14 - Box Contents
Component Qty: 73 - Other - Enclosures / Final Assembly
Component Qty: 35 - Misc PCB Assemblies
Component Qty: 1038 - Grand Total
The average smartphone we teardown ranges from 900 to 1100 components in all, although LTE designs push, sometimes, much higher (into the 1500 component range) - traditional HSPA+ designs such as this remain in line with historic smartphone complexity having a component count of about 1000.
Design Notes
The design, with the exception of the applications processors, closely resembles the Galaxy Note and the HTC ONE X International version utilizing Intel's X-Gold 626 (XMM6260) platform for the wireless portion. The memory section is a little odd in this class of phones with a 16GB eMMC NAND for storage, a 1GB Package on Package Mobile DDR2 for the Intel processor and a MCP with Flash + Mobile DDR for wireless modem. Most of other high-end smartphones we have analyzed employ a MCP containing the storage NAND plus mobile DDR that takes care of the storage AND wireless modem need instead of having a separate discrete ""small" MCP memory that only serves the wireless portion of the phone.
The rest of the design is fairly conventional featuring TI Wilink 7.0 supporting Bluetooth, FM, GPS and WLAN function, Audience's Voice Processor with 2 MEMS microphones, Silicon Image's MHL HD Interface IC, Honeywell's E-compass, ST Micro's Accelerometer, Invensense's Gyroscope and a CSR GSD4T GPS IC. Although both the TI Wilink 7.0 and the CSR GSD4T support GPS, it appears that the phone primarily utilizes the CSR part judging from the traces on the PCB.
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