5 Big Winners Inside of the Apple Inc. Watch
Thanks to a teardown report from ABI Research, we now know many of the "winners" inside of the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch is very likely the first wearable device that will sell in quantities meaningful enough such that a teardown report is useful to investors.
Apple Watch Sport. Source: Apple
Without further ado, let's take a look at five companies that managed to score spots inside of the Apple Watch.
No. 1: Broadcom Inside of the Apple Watch is a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/NFC/FM Radio combo chip from wireless-chip giant Broadcom.The chip, according to the ABI Research teardown, is the BCM4332. Broadcom says that this integrates the Wi-Fi baseband, MAC, and the radio onto a single silicon die.
Broadcom says that it can achieve "over 200 Megabits per second of actual wireless throughput." For some context, iFixit (citing Chipworks) reports that the iPhone 5s features the Broadcom BCM4334 chip, which Broadcom says delivers "up to 150 [Megabits per second]" of throughput.
The Wi-Fi inside of the Apple Watch seems to be faster than the Wi-Fi found inside of the iPhone 5s!
No. 2: Analog DevicesAnother winner inside of the Apple Watch is Analog Devices.The analog-chip company is said to supply the touch controller into the Apple Watch. This is interesting, particularly as Apple has been using Broadcom touch controllers inside of its iPhones and iPads for a while now.
Interestingly enough, a report from Barclays published last month (via Barron's) suggested that Analog Devices would be providing the analog-to-digital converter required for Apple's Force Touch in the next iPhone.
No. 3: ST Microelectronics With the iPhone 5s, ST Microelectronicsreportedly lost the accelerometer spot to Bosch, but retained the gyroscope spot. In the iPhone 6, ST Micro lost the gyroscope spot to InvenSense.
The good news for ST Micro is that it won the combined accelerometer and gyroscope spot inside of the Apple Watch. Although I don't expect the revenue that ST Micro will get from this win is enough to make up for its losses inside of the iPhone, the win shows that ST Micro's technology is solid, and that it's still "in the game."
No. 4: Integrated Device Technology Integrated Device Technologyreportedly supplies a wireless charging chip into the Apple Watch. The competition here is fierce as it faces major companies such as Broadcom and Texas Instruments for wireless charging spots.
Although the Apple Watch win itself is nice, I think it may pave the way to wins inside of future iPhone/iPad products. I'm almost certain that wireless charging is something that Apple plans to build into future iPhones/iPads, so IDT may have an edge -- if it executes well as an Apple Watch supplier -- when it comes time for Apple to pick the wireless charging chip supplier for those future iPhones and iPads.
No. 5: NXP Semiconductor Finally, NXP Semiconductorseems to have won the NFC controller spot inside of the Apple Watch. NXP had already won the NFC controller and secure element spots inside of the iPhone 6/6 Plus, so this doesn't come as too much of a surprise.
A solid, but not unexpected, win for NXP.
The article 5 Big Winners Inside of the Apple Inc. Watch originally appeared on Fool.com.
Ashraf Eassa owns shares of InvenSense. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, InvenSense, and NXP Semiconductors. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, InvenSense, and NXP Semiconductors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright 1995 - 2015 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.