Skyworks place in iPhone

SaulR80683 · May 18, 2015, 9:57am

A little while back krisfore made an important post (#8546), that somehow got passed over. I thought everyone invested in SWKS should be aware of it. He wrote, in part:

OK, if AVGO is used in phones I was wondering where SWKS and QRVO fit in. Here’s something that I found that explains it a bit more:
http://seekingalpha.com/news/1991955-iphone-6-teardowns-qcom……

Well I followed the link to a teardown of the iPhone 6, and found that seven or eight different chip companies had chips in the iPhone, including two by SWKS and six by QCOM. Here’s what I concluded: Great link Kris. That explained a lot to me:

1 - There’s a bit of everyone in the iPhone. It may not be enough to budge the dial much for a huge company like QCOM, but it’s a big deal for SWKS.

2 - That means that Apple isn’t going to drop or cut SWKS’s input because SWKS has some kind of a monopoly stranglehold. Apple is a big customer for SWKS, but SWKS is just one supplier among many for Apple. I found that rather reassuring.

3 - It also means to me that SWKS can keep growing enormously fast in its own little niches. It doesn’t have to take over the world. It has grown as fast as it has being just one of many suppliers to Apple. Sounds great to me.

Saul

Drake54 · May 18, 2015, 2:36pm

Since QCOM and SWKS both have content within iPhones and since an earlier thread promoted QCOM’s position, here is a SA article that may have some bearing on a potential QCOM reduction.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3192586-how-apple-can-meet-t…

“Apple’s purchase of Icera also would underscore the continuing difficulties of the commodity IC makers such as Intel and Qualcomm. Both appear to be competing for Apple’s modem business, but this business may be superseded by the ongoing technical evolution of the SOC. Continuing progress in shrinking circuits with each process node means that more functionality will be included, inevitably. As it does, opportunities for commodity suppliers to companies such as Apple also shrink.
Both Intel and Qualcomm are the long-term losers of an Apple Icera acquisition.”

Respectfully,
Drake54