Wireless Industry Analyst

• The 3G version, as I have already mentioned, suffers from a costlier chip also. The average price per 3G chip is closer to $25 as against single digit numbers for the Infineon chip in the iPhone today. Besides, the royalty structure for 3G amounts to about 28% of the average selling price of the 3G phone. Apple typically keeps its cost constant for more features. This will imply reduced margins from iPhone V2
• The power consumption issue does open up the question of who the baseband supplier will be. Will it be QualComm (QCOM), which has made strides in power management since iPhone V1? Will it be Infineon that has been confirmed to be developing UMTS (3G) baseband chipsets for atleast 2 companies? And if so, where does the recent licensing deal between Apple and Interdigital (IDCC) fit in?
• Who will supply the A-GPS capability for the iPhone?
  
• Would iPhone V2 be HSDPA-enabled?
  

• There has been a rut in both iPod innovation and sales growth over the past couple of years. It is high-time Apple re-invents the product.
• The iPhone was an Avatar of the iPod but with phone capabilities. Steve himself announced that it was the most powereful iPod as yet. It makes sense that Apple should give the market a stand-alone non-phone version of such a gadget as well. Besides, its innate ability to surprise not with-standing, Apple should cater to customer demand and anticipation of features such as wide-screen, touch-screen etc.
• Wi-Fi is already in competing gadgets as the Microsoft Zune. iPod should not appear dated especially given that another of Apple's product already has such features. I do not think this will encroach the iPhone's market since the phone and its associated features (like the voice mail feature) have to be the USP of iPhone.
• Wi-Fi will open up avenues of using the iPod as a fixed wireless phone (with VoIP services) and would be a handy addition. The issue with Wi-Fi however is going to be battery life. Unless Marvell and Apple have worked a solution for that, this may be a bottle-neck.

• A Mac OS based iPod, again in line with the iPhone thereby helping it transition from just a music player to a PC-surrogate. This would open the gates to applications and features that make the iPod powerful.
• A flash version of iPod with less battery utility to compensate for the power consumption of the Wi-Fi chip.

As analysts and technology enthusiasts rush to dissect the iPhone to unravel the 'closely-guarded' secrets of the chips inside, it does not come as a surprise to me. To most wireless insiders, putting two-and-two together should have been easy. In most of my blogs, I have been taking for granted that the Infineon GSM chip is inside. The other component chips were also fairly guessable based on public stance of some of these companies and general word-of-mouth.

So, though it comes as a confirmation to those dis-believers, its a fairly redundant one at that. To me what is interesting is the iPhone V2 going forward. That is where the guessing game should be. So, all the hoopla about shares of these chip-makers going up are ratifications of the truth, as I have pointed out in my previous articles, I would not be bullish about most of these companies based on what they have in there today.

For the uninitiated, Infineon's GSM chip, Marvell's Wi-Fi, Samsung's memory and BroadCom's controller chip are in the iPhone. Intel, TI and National also had a share of the pie.