Thursday, June 19, 2008, 10:00 am

iPhone 3G component suppliers revealed by Chinese paper?

By Sam Oliver

Infineon, Broadcom, and Foxconn Electronics are amongst the big winners when it comes to component suppliers for Apple's soon-to-arrive iPhone 3G mobile handset, according to the Commercial Times.

The Chinese-language newspaper cited its own sources in saying that Foxconn -- not Quanta as some earlier reports had erroneously suggested -- will be piecing the device together at its Taiwanese facilities and also manufacturing its enclosure.

True to expectations, Infineon is said to be supplying a new systems solution handset chip that will likely include a digital baseband controller, power management unit (PMU), and radio frequency (RF) module. Meanwhile, it's alleged that Broadcom will indeed be serving up the GPS module.

Also inside will be touch-screen panels from Sharp, camera modules from Altus Technology and Primax Electronics, camera lenses from Largan Precision and Genius Electronics Optical, integrated circuit packaging from Siliconware Precision Industries, and circuit boards from Unimicron Technology, Nanya PCB, and Compeq Manufacturing.

For the most part, the suppliers are similar to those identified as playing roles in the original iPhone, though Catcher Technology appears to have lost its seat as the provider of the phone's enclosure due to a shift away from metal casings and towards plastic ones with the new model, a move aimed at improving the handset's wireless transmissions.


The Commercial Times adds that with the iPhone 3G launching simultaneously in 22 countries on July 11, total shipments are expected to top 10 million units in the third quarter calendar quarter of the year alone.