Dissected New iPhones Reveal Intel, Toshiba Parts

Apple Inc’s latest iPhones hit stores around the world on Friday, featuring components made by Intel Corp and Toshiba among others, according to two firms that cracked open the iPhone Xs and Xs Max models.

The studies by repair firm iFixit and chip analysis firm TechInsights, published this week, are among the first detailed teardowns of the phones, which reviews suggested were a subtle upgrade from the tenth anniversary iPhone X, Reuters reported.

Supplying parts for Apple’s iPhones is considered a coup for chipmakers and other manufacturers. While Apple publishes a broad list of suppliers each year, it does not disclose which companies make which components and insists its suppliers keep quiet.

That makes teardowns the only way of establishing the breakdown of parts in the phones, although analysts also recommend caution in drawing conclusions because Apple sometimes uses more than one supplier for a part. What is found in one iPhone may not be found in others.

The breakdowns listed no parts from Samsung and no chips from Qualcomm Inc.

Samsung in the past has supplied memory chips for Apple’s iPhones and was believed by analysts to be the sole supplier of the costly displays for last year’s iPhone X.

Qualcomm has been a supplier of components to Apple for years, but the two have been locked in a wide-ranging legal dispute in which Apple has accused Qualcomm of unfair patent licensing practices.