The tenth year since the birth of the iPhone was taken for granted by the media in 2017. Apple changed the naming convention for many years to launch the iPhone X. TechInsights' teardown team took this milestone Another way of looking at it is to look at the hardware evolution and innovation that comes with the phone.
In particular, with the release of the iPhone 8/8 Plus, reviewing the evolution of this handset since 2007 and the hardware choices Apple has made will help understand Apple's product development strategy and future directions.
The first iPhone: the first innovation
At the launch of the first iPhone, former Apple chief executive Steve Jobs described it as a touchscreen-enabled widescreen iPod, a mobile phone with revolutionary and groundbreaking Internet communications Device. "He did make the phone screen bigger - 3.5 inches (of course not the current large size), and through the screen behind the software to define the phone, to enable multi-touch capabilities, so that users Select music lists and photos by touching or flipping the phone, zooming in and out of the screen, connecting the screen to various functions and, of course, text keyboards. The screen itself supports a very high resolution (at the time) , Including 160ppi and 2 million pixel camera.
Apple also ported its Safari browser to handsets and enhanced e-mail capabilities to provide a richer interface than any competing product. The combination of features made the iPhone the most unique phone of the day.
What was most impressive at the time was the MEMS accelerometer, which allows the screen to be flipped to view pictures and videos in landscape format. At that time, no one had ever done that, and few of them had MEMS capabilities, even if they had Only for some screen-independent applications.When Apple launched a MEMS application, the application development community will soon be expanded.
In addition, it supports ambient light and proximity sensors that can be used to adjust the brightness of the screen and to turn off the touchscreen function while on a call, to avoid inadvertent activation of other functions.
Chipworks dismantled the first generation of iPhone in July 2007, with its electronic components located on two boards, iPod and Wireless, respectively. Looking at the wireless part of the board, you can learn about the industry's suppliers at the time.
Since Infineon sold its wireless unit to Intel and CSR has been absorbed by Qualcomm, Skyworks is still a major player in the RF frontier. Unfortunately, we have been unable to determine who Apple adopted Home of the EDGE multi-chip package (MCP). It is noteworthy that the internal Peregrine switch uses silicon-on-sapphire technology, although not first adopted but extremely rare. Peregrine is now part of Murata, The UltraCMOS process developed has become one of the largest users of RF-SOI (even 300mm wafers).
The other board includes the application processor + DRAM, flash memory, audio codecs, power management chip and MEMS, along with Linear Tech's USB power management and National Semiconductor (NS) Pixel connected (MPL) interface chip.The camera is made by Micron.
Similarly, we are witnessing the evolution of the industry; Wolfson is now part of Cirrus; TI acquired NS; and Micron's camera business was sold to Aptina as ON Semiconductor. NXP, Qualcomm is about to be acquired (if the regulator approves it).
In fact, the iPhone's market advantage or its superior performance is not based on one of the unique advanced chips, but incorporates an innovative touch screen, multiple applications and a sleek design.
From the package point of view, iPhone follows the trend of mobile phones, complete coverage of the then popular dense packaging: two MCP (Peregrine switch and Intel memory), Samsung NAND flash memory double stack, and Samsung Application Processing Device + SDRAM PoP package. Marvell and CSR chip flip chip (flip-chip) package.
Turn point: iPhone 4
From the dismantling of the iPhone over the past decade, the iPhone 4 is a turning point in development as Apple started to shift its motherboard from a single-sided PCB to a more compact and high-density double-sided PCB.
More importantly, Apple has been using the A series of application processors since then, although the first to use the iPad, but the iPhone 4 used just called A4.
From the first iPhone to iPhone 3GS Samsung's processor are used, iPhone 4 began to use its own design of the A series of processors, and then in a very long period of time, A series of processors has been OEM from Samsung until the A8 Before joining TSMC (TSMC) foundry.
iPhone 4 is also the first iPhone to use a compass chip, gyroscope and tri-axis accelerometer; the camera is upgraded to a 5M pixel unit with video capability (there was no Selfie at the moment, only after 5S), and the wireless upgrade to 3G CDMA and 2G GSM standards, but still use the 3.5-inch screen.
Some changes to the rear camera image sensor are also worth reviewing. The first iPhone was born using Micron Imaging's CMOS image sensor (CIS), when the company ranked second in terms of CIS and Sony ranked only V. In 2009, Apple chose OmniVision's back-illuminated OmniBSI platform to replace Micron and switch to Sony's customization solution only after 2011 and is now a leader in CIS market share.
iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
Compared to the original iPhone design, the iPhone 7 Series has little or no recognition, and the 7 Series models support 4G LTE and operate in more than 40 wireless bands with Carrier Aggregation (CA) to enhance signal sensitivity. The screen uses 3D Touch pressure sensitive multi-touch technology, respectively, for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus 326-ppi 4.7-inch screen, and 401-ppi 5.5-inch screen.
iPhone 7 series offers 7M pixel front selfie camera - iPhone 7's main camera supports 12M pixel unit, 7 Plus is equipped with dual lens camera, respectively f / 1.8 aperture 12M wide-angle and f / 2.8 aperture telephoto camera, And 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. The Selfie camera uses ST's ToF sensor as a proximity (or possible autofocus) detector.
Apple introduced the fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5S and the 7 series has advanced to the second generation. In addition to the motion and direction sensor, it also has the function of pressure, temperature and humidity sensors, and heart rate monitor.
The iPhone currently has 3.3 billion transistors and a 64-bit quad-core A10 processor powered by TSMC's 16nm technology, a 6-core GPU and a 2GB DRAM (Plus phones upgraded from 128MB of the previous generation 6S Plus to 3GB.) Since flash memory flash), as well as the need for more and more data, the maximum memory capacity increased from 8GB to 256GB in ten years.
As the wireless capabilities expand, the board's RF-side becomes more complex, with some of the North American versions of the iPhone taking some design orders using technology acquired from Infineon (Qualcomm chips are available for other regions). In addition, we Also see also the Skyworks, Broadcom / Avago, TDK and Qorvo chips.
In terms of the integration of semiconductor logic devices, newer handsets typically use fewer components, however, because of the wide range of applications for the new generation of handsets, the motherboard actually uses more chips.
At present, each element of the iPhone is almost advanced or custom designed, including from the RF front-end to the power management chip, camera, memory, A10 processor using the latest FinFET process, etc. The A10 processor is the first to use TSMC's InFO Technology, many other chips on the board use chip-level flip-chip packaging.
iPhone manufacturing costs more
Over the decade, the first-generation 8GB iPhone sold for $ 599 and the 64GB to 32GB iPhone 7, showing how manufacturing costs change over time.
TechInsights estimates the manufacturing cost of the first-generation iPhone was $ 221.45 in 2007. The best estimate for manufacturing costs for the iPhone 7 is $ 253.82, $ 32.37 more than the original version.Although this phone made significant advances in performance and functionality, But Apple also managed to keep costs under control.
The original iPhone comes with an Apple design, an application processor from Samsung and an Infineon GSM / EDGE baseband processor, which is estimated to be about $ 22.58, while the iPhone 7 comes equipped with Apple A10 application processing by TSMC And the Qualcomm MDM9645 LTE baseband processor; this more powerful component adds up to $ 58.45, or 2.6 times the original cost, but in this case, the handset user also gets a 2.34 GHz quad-core processor and LTE Advanced data machine.
The more cost-effective areas include connectivity and sensors, which added $ 8.21 to the original iPhone and $ 13.61 to the iPhone 7. More than 1.6 times the iPhone 7. Both phones are equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth And accelerometer.The iPhone 7 also adds secure NFC, gyroscope, compass, barometric sensor, Touch ID and ambient light sensing components.
From the first iPhone to the iPhone 7 series, camera costs rose 3.3% from $ 7.10 to $ 23.31 While the original iPhone uses a 2M pixel camera, the iPhone 7 supports a 7 megapixel front camera and a 12 megapixel rear Camera and LED flash.
Increasing so many components, Apple how to save costs? One of the ways it comes from the display / touch module. Ten years ago, the original version of the 3.5-inch TFT display costs about 60.68 US dollars, while the iPhone 7 4.7-inch TFT (Continued from iPhone 6 / 6S) The current market cost is about 32.48 US dollars. Ten years is a long time, enough to drive the cost of these components to reduce the current market cost point of view, 3.5-inch display / touch module price of about Between $ 10 and $ 15.
Another cost-saving area is memory. Ten years ago, Apple equipped its iPhone with 8GB (then high-order) MLC NAND and 128MB DDR SDRAM. 8GB NAND accounted for a large portion of the $ 60 cost Most devices come with 2GB NAND.) Up to 32GB of MLC NAND and 2GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM are now available on the iPhone 7. Component costs for this category doubled in this model, while DDR4 even accounts for 21.49 in this category Two thirds.
We also see a burst of growth in the cost of mixed-signal / RF class consisting mainly of components that make up the RF section (transceivers, power amplifiers, filters, RF switches, etc. The original iPhone uses only GSM / EDGE At a cost of $ 4.70, and the iPhone 7 jumped to $ 24.53 as a result of the addition of many HSPA and LTE bands, adding even more functionality and complexity to higher costs.
Likewise, power management / audio classes have become more sophisticated on the iPhone 7, increasing its cost from $ 6.95 to $ 10.56.
A similar increase was seen for other electronic components: The cost of about $ 15.89 for the original iPhone was raised to $ 23.47 by the iPhone 7. In fact, the difference in handsets can be attributed to more components and features from a cost perspective.
The mechanical costs between the two handsets are about the same, with the original iPhone costing $ 17.24 and the iPhone 7 costing $ 18.76, and the difference in this part is the manufacturing process.
The cost of testing / assembly / auxiliary materials increased from $ 13.04 to $ 21.33, mainly due to higher labor costs, assembly time and more components added.
Conclusion
Over the past decade, Apple has taken a splash with its iPhone product line, and from the first iPhone to the iPhone 7, Apple has evolved over time to control its manufacturing costs rather than leapfrogs, using modestly specialized technologies such as AMOLED monitors and their TFT premiums to avoid squeezing their profits or causing them to increase their prices beyond their original position.) Apple also effectively maintained its selling price, only a slight increase in the iPhone 7.
As a whole, the iPhone 8 does not have much feature upgrades overall as the iPhone 8 and iPhone X are released, and it is still a step in the plan for Apple's incremental handset functionality, sometimes with software updates progressing significantly more than hardware. IPhone X will cost $ 999 to make more progress, but at least until after the listing in November to know.
In the future, will Apple continue to add functionality to its advanced design or embrace more unknown new technologies? In any case, the evolution of the iPhone has given us the expectation of seeing another 10 years of further progress.