iPhone's guts and component manufacturers

After the long-awaited launch of the mysterious Apple's iPhone on June 29, 2007, there have been some attempts at tearing apart the phone to reveal its insides. Sramana Mitra, (I have been a loyal reader of her Strategy blog for the past few months) has done a great job at analyzing the various companies that provide these components. According to some reports, Apple's profit margin per iPhone sold is about 55%, which is greater than the profit margin her iPod sold, which is around 45-50%. Below I provide a brief summary and a link to each of these components as analyzed by Sramana. This probably serves as an initial entry point to further research for companies that serve iPhone components, and earn the reputation of being iPhone-providers. They are likely to win more business as Apple competitors plunge in to build iPhone-like phones.

• Samsung (London Stock Exchange: SMSN) : made the main processor of iPhone (ARM S5L8900) and flash memory chips (2 512 MB Mobile DDR SDRAM). Samsung is the biggest player in the iPhone guts - it accounts for about 30% of the total component cost, probably best positioned to gain if the iPhone becomes a huge success. Sramana's analysis here
  
• BroadCom (NASDAQ: BRCM): made the IO chip (BCM5973) used for video interface to the touch screen. According to Sramana, Broadcom makes about 1.15 per unit sold.
• Infineon (NYSE: IFX): provides the PMB8876 S-Gold 2 multimedia engine with EDGE functionality and the GSM RF receiver. Its a Germany based company, although not highly profitable at this point, it has earned the reputation of being an iPhone provider, and also provides chips to other mobile manufacturers. Sramana's analysis here.
  
• National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM): provides the 24-bit RGB display interface serializer. Accounts for about $1.5 of iPhone's total component costs. Sramana analyzes it here.
  
• Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN): most likely provides the power management device of iPhone, although this is still not confirmed. Another contender is National Semiconductor. Sramana's analysis here
• ST Micro (NYSE: STM): provides the accelerometer of the iPhone - in other words, the cool sensor that detects the orientation of the iPhone - horizontal or vertical. It accounts for 1.3% of iPhone's total component cost. Sramana's analysis here.
  
• Balda (Germany Stock Exchange: BLDA): makes the key feature of the iPhone - the highly touted multitouch screen. This touch screen is supposed to make up about 10% of the iPhone's component cost. More analysis by Sramana is here.
• Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL): provides the Wi-Fi chip within iPhone, that lets it connect to any Wi-Fi hotspot. Sramana's analysis here.
  
• Intel(Nasdaq: INTC): provides the wireless flash and SRAM for code execution. Who doesnt know Intel and its processors ? Sramana's analysis here.
  
• Micron(NYSE: MU): provides the imaging chip for the iPhone 2 Megapixel camera. Micron stock has been rising since April '07 after couple of upgrades. Sramana's analysis here.
• Amperex Technology Limited: a Hong-Kong based company with offices in China, provides the iPhone battery.