the iPhone is quite simply the reason I believed in Apple as a company 18 months ago when I bought shares. As I have mentioned on a number of occasions, it is its telecommunicationally challenged brother the iPod that has been a form of rechargeable sanity for most of my time in China… and that is why when I saw a few posts on the iPhone supply chain I had to write this post.
Beginning with the recent Foxconn article in the WSJ, and my resulting post, I then stumbled upon Spendmatters’s Apple’s iPod Supply Chain post, which lead me to TEXYT’s article iPhone: Who’s the Real Manufacturer, which then took me the to Shumla’s post entitled The Apple iPhone Supply Chain, source of this diagram
What makes these posts so interesting, is that the not only detail the various products that go into the iPhone (hint: component manufacturer stocks are going up too), it shows just how many steps there are in the process.
| Software and design | Apple | USA |
| Assembly | Foxconn?, Quanta, Unknown | Taiwan |
| TFT-LCD Screen | Sanyo Epson, Sharp, TMD | Japan |
| Video processor chip | Samsung | Korea |
| Touch screen overlay | Balda | Germany |
| Bluetooth chip | Cambridge Silicon Radio | UK |
| Chip manufacture | TSMC, UMC | Taiwan |
| Baseband IC | Infineon Technology | Germany |
| WIFI Chip | Marvell | USA |
| Touch screen control chip | Broadcom | USA |
| CMOS chip | Micron | USA |
| NOR Flash ICs | Intel, SST | USA |
| Display Driver chip | National Semi, Novatek | US, TW |
| Case, Mechanical parts | Catcher, Foxconn Tech | Taiwan |
| Camera lens | Largan Precision | Taiwan |
| Camera module | Altus-Tech, Primax, Lite On | Taiwan |
| Battery Charger | Delta Electronics | Taiwan |
| Timing Crystal | TXC | Taiwan |
| Passive components | Cyntec | Taiwan |
| Connector and cables | Cheng Uei, Entery | Taiwan |
What I found most interesting was how far Foxconn reached into the Supply chain. Not only do they supply a number of the critical components, but they are also the final assembler.
That’s right… the iPhone is Made in China .. Shenzhen to be exact
To bad I will have to wait another year to get one..
Stumble it!
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:00 am
yea man. the new international division of labour!
August 28th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Hi!How would one know if an iPhone is fake. I recently bought an iPhone from a friend who bought it from China. I wonder if this is original as I noticed that the soft ware from what I see in the internet is different from what I have in the phone. Help please.
August 28th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Eric,
I hate to break it to you, … it’s fake.
To date, the only real fullly functioning iPhones are only for sale as part of the AT&T network - Doesn’t Steve know that the China market is bigger than the U.S. market?
There are people here in town who bought them in the U.S. and brought them over, but they are nothing more than iPods as they are not on the AT&T network.
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:08 am
When I was in China, I noticed many high quality fakes that some people said were extra production that went out the back door of the factory. So those were fakes with a difference, unauthorized additional production that violates the rights of the designer. Perhaps we will see that for iphones too.
September 3rd, 2007 at 5:10 am
David,
I would be shocked if there were some off the truck iPhones. If true, it would show that Apple’s suppliers are either shipping extra components that are not being kept track of, or that Foxconn is cooking the books.
What would be interesting though is if someone were able to take one off the AT&T network somehow so that a China based SIM card would be allowed to operate. Fake or Not, that would command a price in the market worth more than the iPhone itself
September 10th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Yeah, and the fake Louis Vitton purses are extra stock going out the back door too! Sucker are born every day. There is never anything even remotely close to the products that claim to be “extra production” and the real thing. P.T. Barnum was right, and Gordon Gecko has convinced people that greed is good. That’s why people lose $200 on bullcrap like that.
October 11th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Why are you waiting another year to get one?
December 21st, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Hi!
In the case of purses and textiles its totally possible as they always have excess production you can get it way cheaper and it will be authentic
January 15th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Friend of mine bought iphone from USA and he is using it in Saudi Arabia … he manage to hack/crack the software… is it this much easier for the mobile tech’s that they can crack or open the software to work with any network…?
April 10th, 2008 at 3:49 am
lol not at all…..its true that china make fake iphone butis doesnt meaning that all iphone came from china is fake^^
for information please2 chek this web for pic. comparison:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/iphone-fake-photo-comparison/2007-09-12
this one will show that two diffrent phone i hope you guys can understand that they have 2 type of iphone:
1. a real iphone but only assembly in china
2. a fake iphone/copy iphone and made in china as well
April 10th, 2008 at 3:57 am
oke guys that is a fake phone like i was said before but now i talk about a CLONE…………….shit them all who just copy/clone and make it fake oke there is the pic of CLONE iphone.
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/08/12/first-real-snapshots-of-meizus-m8-supposedly-surface/
in that pic. only the middle button who make it diffrent from real iphone(do you know the real iphone only have one big button in the screen)
please asking free to me about real iphone, i will answer^^