Pacific Crest Offers One of the First Previews for iPhone 5s Teardown

On Wednesday, Pacific Crest Securities published a "teardown preview" for Apple's AAPL new iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5s uses an ARM ARMH Core of v8 versus the v7 in the iPhone 5. Pacific Crest believes the "TSM transition is still on track for ‘14,” highlighting a 2-plus percent royalty for ARM. This is one-half of a percent greater than the iPhone 5's 1.5-2 percent. The Imagination Tech Grp modified the GPU to IMG PowerVR Series 6 from IMG PowereVR SGX 543MP3. Pacific Crest noted that “speculation of ARM Mali GPU appears unfounded.” Skyworks Solutions SWKS slightly increased their 3 modules RF. Avago Technologies Limited AVGO and TriQuint Semiconductor TQNT truly upped the game and “likely achieved more meaningful dollar content gains vs. SWKS on overall up PA content in the iPhone 5s.” Apple users will be disappointed as the same 1GB RAM has been confirmed in the 5s. There is speculation that Invensense Inc INVN may be in the iPhone 5s, but is more likely to appear in the upcoming iPad. A potential switch to Globecomm Systems Inc GCOM integrates chipset for Wi-Fi/ GPS is apparent as Apple uses 802.11n versus 802.11c. It is rumored that “Renesas has likely won the iPhone 5s touch controller from Broadcom” BRCM, according to Pacific Crest.