Garmin Nuvi 200 Portable Navigation Device Teardown

Main Features / Overview

Entry-level portable personal navigation system with a sleek 20mm thick design and features including a 3.5 touch-screen 262K Color 240 x 320 Pixel TFT display, and an internal 1250mAh rechargeable Li-ion battery. It also features an SD card expansion slot.

From a hardware point-of-view this device has only the most basic features - a screen and a speaker - as do competing low-end units (no Bluetooth, no FM transmission, no TMC, etc.). In fact, no matter who the manufacturer is, the 'basic' models lack most of the following features which are reserved for various flavors of high-end models: a 4.3" diagonal display (vs. 3.5" standard in low-end untis), Bluetooth, FM transmitter, and RDS-TMC receiver (for real-time traffic conditions).

The Garmin Nuvi 200 is a basic portable all-in-one navigation system mainly designed for use in vehicles, but also is portable enough to be handheld (as are most - but most competitors are bulkier than the Nuvi).

Garmin Nuvi 200 Portable Navigation Device Main Image

Priced and marketed as an entry-level automotive navigation device, the Nuvi 200 is among the lowest-end within the Garmin's family. Per Garmin's press release, the Nuvi 200 ""offers budget savvy consumers the benefit of a premium in-dash system at a fraction of the cost".

Released

Available April 2007 per Garmin's press release.

Pricing and Availability

Suggested retail price $213.32 USD per Garmin's web site; however, it is offered by multiple e-tailers online for ~$160 USD.

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a 2-year lifetime production volume of 5.8M units (with no changes to hardware - specifically the enclosures).

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 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.

Garmin Nuvi 200 Portable Navigation Device - Main PCB Top

Market / Sector Performance

Per iSuppli's "Global OEM Manufacturing and Design Analysis (GOMDA)", iSuppli estimates that the PND market will ship nearly 33 million standalone units in the 2008 global market with a 2006 to 2011 compound annual growth rate of 32.4%. Furthermore, iSuppli estimates that Garmin is one of the dominant players, second to Tom Tom, in the standalone PND device segment with an approximate of 22% market share (as of 2006).

Function / Performance

No testing was performed on this device.

Garmin Nuvi 200 Portable Navigation Device Cost Analysis

Main Cost Driver

Sharp - LQ035Q1DH01 - Display Module - 3.5' Diagonal, 320 x 240 Pixels, 262K Color TFT, w/ Touch Screen - Qty(1)

Hynix - HY27UG088G5M-TPCB - Flash - NAND, SLC, 8Gb (1G x 8bit) - Qty(1)

Texas Instruments - D751623BZHK - CPU - OMAP Processor - Qty(1)

Garmin - Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 1250mAh, w/ Integral 3-Wire Harness & 3-Position Socket - Qty(1)

ST Microelectronics - STA205x - GPS Baseband - ARM7TDMI RISC Core - Qty(1)

Qimonda - HYB18L256168BF75 - SDRAM - Mobile, 256Mb, 4Banks x 4M x 16bit, 133MHz, 1.8V - Qty(1)

Car Charger - 5.0V, 1.0A - Qty(1)

Unitech - 8-Layer - FR4, Lead-Free - Qty(1)

SiGe Semiconductor - SE4100L-R - GPS Receiver - High Sensitivity and Low Power, Integrated LNA - Qty(1)

Enclosure, Main, Top - Injection Molded Flame Retardant Polycarbonate, Silkscreened, Silver Painted - Qty(1)

Linear Technology - LTC3557EUF-1#PBF - Regulator - Triple Switching, Step-Down, USB Power Manager w/ Li-Ion Battery Charger - Qty(1)

Total w/ Manufacturing $66.98

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 and 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.

Garmin Nuvi 200 Portable Navigation Device - Main PCB Bottom

Manufacturing Notes

Garmin's Relationships / Manufacturing

Per iSuppli's ""Global OEM Manufacturing and Design Analysis (GOMDA)", Garmin produces all of its PNDs products in-house. Based on isuppli's research, Garmin is operating manufacuturing plants in three cities, two in the US and one in Taiwan.

Country of Origin

This Garmin Nuvi 200 is made in Taiwan (final assembly, that is), per markings on the retail box. However, with respect to subassemblies, unless specifically labeled, it was assumed that PCBAs and plastics, etc are sourced from local suppliers in China. We generally assume that where not noted, that sub-assemblies and some custom manufactured items (plastics, mechanicals, etc.) will be produced in the lowest cost region in the absence of proof to the contrary. We therefore assumed that the PCBA was assembled in China, and that the custom mechanical components were also produced in China. This is not known - and these are merely assumptions.

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 Bluetooth 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.

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 / Complexity

The Garmin Nuvi 200 features a total component count (excluding box contents) of 464 components, of which 34 are mechanical in nature.

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.

Garmin Nuvi 200 Portable Navigation Device - Enclosure Disassembly

Design Notes

As with all portable navigation devices, the Garmin Nuvi 200 design features two principal 'hemispheres' - the applications processor, and the GPS receiving / processing circuitry. Like other entry-level GPS PNDs, the Garmin 200 features a core GPS solution other than SiRF StarIII, whereas the higher end version (the Garmin 200W) does feature that chip. In fact - this appears to be common that the SiRF chipsets are found mostly in the higher end units.

The applications processor (Texas Instruments - D751623BZHK) is an OMAP processor variant. Additionally, the Garmin Nuvi 200 features 1GB (8Gb) of internal NAND Flash (SLC). Note that with the trends in NAND flash pricing, there is clearly a trend to find more internal embedded memory in favor of bundling SD memory cards, etc.

Here is a summary of the major components used in Garmin Nuvi 660 design:

Main PCB

CPU

CPU - OMAP Processor - Texas Instruments - D751623BZHK

GPS

GPS Baseband - ARM7TDMI RISC Core - ST Microelectronics - STA205x

GPS Receiver - High Sensitivity and Low Power, Integrated LNA - SiGe Semiconductor - SE4100L-R

User Interface

DAC - Stereo Audio, w/ Integrated Headphone Amplifier, Low-Power - Texas Instruments - TLV320DAC23RHD

Memory

SDRAM - Mobile, 256Mb, 4Banks x 4M x 16bit, 133MHz, 1.8V - Qimonda - HYB18L256168BF75

Flash - NAND, SLC, 8Gb (1G x 8bit) - Hynix - HY27UG088G5M-TPCB

Display Module

Sharp - LQ035Q1DH01 - 3.5' Diagonal, 240 x 320 Pixels, 262K Color TFT, w/ Touch Screen

"

Garmin Nuvi 200 Portable Navigation Device - Box Contents