3G phones get less circuitry - thankfully

The electronics within a 3G mobile phone are getting simpler - and for that we should be happy.

Texas-based analysts Portelligent recently looked at the bill of materials - or BOM - within UMTS 3G handsets, the type of devices that are gradually being rolled out across Europe. It found that since the start of this year products going to market have 25 per cent fewer components than their predecessors over the previous 18 months.

European UMTS handsets, based on a slightly different version of W-CDMA than NTT DoCoMo FOMA handsets in Japan, had around twice the IC (integrated circuit) count as high-end CDMA2000 handsets (a rival 3G standard) but now that figure is broadly similar.

Howard Curtis, Portelligent VP, said in a statement: "In 2003, detailed product teardown analysis of the electronic BOM and component technologies painted a bleak picture for UMTS."

The analysts found the NEC e606, one of the early phones offered by 3 in the UK, was the most complex cellular phone they had ever encountered.

Making the devices electronically simpler doesn't only make them cheaper and easier to assemble. News today that NTL, O2 and others such as Nokia and Sony are looking at integrating digital TV receivers into handsets shows how valuable real estate is inside the world's most popular personal device.

For its research, Portelligent analysed 11 handsets from leading manufacturers based on four of the five leading platform chipsets: NEC/Agere, Motorola SPS (now Freescale), STMicroelectronics/TI and Ericsson Mobile Platforms and its partners. Qualcomm chipset tests are on their way.