SonyEricsson C901 GreenHeart Mobile Phone Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The SonyEricsson C901 is Sony Ericsson's first environmentally-friendly handset offering which sports their "GreenHeart marketing moniker. The dual-band UMTS/HSPDA and quad-band GSM/EDGE handset is packaged in a very minimalistic arrangement. Gone are the thick paper-based manuals which as been ported electronically onto the phone itself. In fact, Sony Ericsson even used the inside flaps of the minuscule packaging box to print startup instructions. According to Sony Ericsson, the e-manual reduces paper usage by over 90% and smaller packaging equates to lower transportation emissions.

Overall, the C901 offers premium 5.0MP auto-focus camera phone experience in a more cost effective design than its predecessor, the C902 (which we have previously analyzed). The handset sports an auto-rotating 2.2 inch TFT display with 262K colors, xenon flash, Bluetooth and FM radio. Also, the C901 has provisions for expandable memory via the onboard M2 card reader.

SonyEricsson C901 GreenHeart Mobile Phone Main Image

High-performance camera-phone segment with particular appeal to environmentally conscious consumers

Released

As per details provided in press releases, the handset was released in June of 2009.

SonyEricsson C901 GreenHeart Mobile Phone - Main PCB Top

Pricing - The C901 is available through various high-end boutique mobile phone e-tailors in the US for as low as $300 at the time of writing (July 2009). However, if the phone is sold through a network carrier in select global markets, the cost may be significantly reduced due to service provider subsidies.

Availability - The SonyEricsson C901 handset is currently available in through carriers in select global markets such as Europe that support the 900/2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA frequencies.

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 1.4M units.

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 increment by an order of magnitude. Minor changes in volume (say 1 million vs. 2) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis.

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 106 million HSDPA handsets in 2009 global market. All estimates are based on a 2 year product life span assumption with an overall 2008 global market share of 7.5% for SonyEricsson.

SonyEricsson C901 GreenHeart Mobile Phone - Main PCB Bottom

Major Cost Drivers (Representing ~74% of Direct Materials Costs)

Camera Module Value Line Item - 5.0MP CMOS, 1/4' Format, Auto Focus Lens

ST-Ericsson - DB3210 - DBB - Digital Baseband Processor, ARM926 Core, PoP

Display Module Value Line Item - 2.2' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 320 x 240 Pixels

Samsung Semiconductor - KAL00900MM-AJ55 - MCP - 2Gb NAND Flash + 128Mb Mobile SDRAM + 512Mb Mobile SDRAM, 1.8V, PoP

Dialog Semiconductor - D1705BD - ABB - Analog Baseband / Power Management

ST-Ericsson - RF3300 - RF Transceiver - Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE & Tri-Band WCDMA/HSDPA

Sony Ericsson - BST-33 - Battery - Li-Polymer, 3.6V, 950mAh

Multek Hong Kong - 8-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 2+4+2, Lead-Free, Halogen-Free

Salcomp - Charger - 4.9V, 700mA, 1.7m Cord

ST-Ericsson - E-STLC2593 - Bluetooth / FM Radio - Single Chip, V2.1+EDR, w/ FM Radio Receiver

White (Qty:4)

RF Micro Devices - RF3161 - PAM - Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, w/ Integrated Power Control

CAA-0002064 - Handsfree Accessory - Earphone/Microphone, Stereo, w/ Single Control Button, w/ 1.1m Cord

RF Micro Devices - RF6285 - PAM - UMTS Multi-Band, Linear, 3V

ST Microelectronics - LIS331DLTR - Accelerometer - MEMS 3-Axis, ±2g/±8g, Digital Output

Materials and Manufacturing $92.46

SonyEricsson C901 GreenHeart Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

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.

SonyEricsson C901 GreenHeart Mobile Phone - Enclosure Disassembly

OEM/ODM/EMS Relationships / Manufacturing

Per iSuppli's ""Global OEM Manufacturing and Design Analysis (GOMDA) - Mobile Handsets Q1 2009", we estimate that SonyEricsson outsources approximately 67% of its production to EMS providers such as Flextronics and Foxconn, as well as ODMs like Arima and Chi Mei Communications.

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Based on markings, the unit was assembled in China. Furthermore, we have assumed that custom mechanicals (plastics, metals, etc.) were also sourced in 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 LCD), 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

The C901 has a component count of 740, of which, 6 were box contents and 176 were mechanical in nature. In fact, the C901 GreenHeart contains the fews components within the box contents category. This overall component-count figure is about 100 less than the previously analyzed Sony Ericsson C901 handset and places it within the norm of the other 3.5G handsets within its competitive set.

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. The cost of manufacturing is also, to some extent, decreased in this case because of assumed labor rate applied for China.

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

Typical of SonyEricsson handset designs, the C901 uses primarily a ST-Ericsson design. This particular model uses an updated DB3210 digital baseband with an ARM926 processing core along with a Dialog Semiconductor ABB solution. Other ST-Ericsson parts are sprinkled throughout the handset from the RF transceivers to combination Bluetooth & FM radio solution to the various user interface functionalities. A multi-band RF Micro power amplifier module rounds out the major design choices.

Here is a summary of the major components used in the SonyEricsson C901 design:

Main PCB

Digital Baseband / Memory

• Digital Baseband Processor - ST-Ericsson - DB3210
• MCP - Samsung Semiconductor - KAL00900MM-AJ55 (2Gb NAND Flash + 128Mb Mobile SDRAM + 512Mb Mobile SDRAM, 1.8V, PoP)

Analog Baseband / Power Management

• Dialog Semiconductor - D1705BD

Bluetooth / FM

• ST-Ericsson - E-STLC2593 ( Single Chip, V2.1+EDR, w/ FM Radio Receiver)

RF Transceiver

• ST-Ericsson- RF3300 (Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE & Tri-Band WCDMA/HSDPA)

User Interface

• USB On-the-Go Transceiver - ST-Ericsson - ISP1508AET (USB2.0, ULPI, Up to 480 Mbit/s)
• ESD/EMI Protect - NXP Semiconductors - IP4027CX20
• Accelerometer - ST Microelectronics - LIS331DLTR (MEMS 3-Axis, ±2g/±8g, Digital Output)

Power Amplifier

• RF Micro Devices- RF6285 (UMTS Multi-Band, Linear, 3V )

Display

• 2.2' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT with 320x240 Pixels

Camera

• Image Sensor (5.0MP) - Aptina

"

SonyEricsson C901 GreenHeart Mobile Phone - Box Contents