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Qualcomm makes killing on Galaxy S5

by on01 April 2014



Maxim, NXP, Synaptics and Skyworks on board too

According to the first teardown of a Samsung Galaxy S5, Qualcomm will be the big winner on almost every phone sold. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 801 SoC will be used in the vast majority of Galaxy S5 phones, although a limited number is expected to ship with Samsung's Exynos parts.

In addition to the SoC, which is the most expensive semi component in the phone, Qualcomm also supplies power management chips, transceivers and the audio amp. Qualcomm is not alone, of course. Synaptics supplies the touch controler and touch IC, the NFC module comes from NXP, Maxim supplies the system PSoC and a biosenseor. A few smaller suppliers are behind the Galaxy's sensor array and other components.

Samsung produces the RAM and NAND flash, but some phones will feature Samsung processors, too.

Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis crunched a few numbers and concluded that even the smallest suppliers stand to make a killing on the Galaxy S5. For example NXP is expected to earn between $50 and $60 million on the NFC controller alone.

Qualcomm is the biggest winner, but it is a bit trickier to estimate how much it will earn, as the phone is expected to ship with Samsung processors too. However, Curtis expects Qualcomm will secure the "vast majority" of volume. The Samsung variant is expected to sport a 3G modem from Intel and an LTE solution from Samsung.

You can get the full lowdown over at the Barron's blog.

 

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