Apple's iPhone 3G S: the $179 handset
Parts and labour cost just $9 more than Palm Pré's
It costs Apple roughly $3 more to make an iPhone 3G S than it does Palm to pump out a Pré, hardware analysis by market watcher iSuppli has revealed.
An expoded view of the iPhone 3G S
Image courtesy of iSuppli
Following a Bill of Materials (BoM) and manufacturing breakdown of the iPhone 3G S, iSuppli concluded that each unit will cost Apple $172.46 in components and $6.50 to manufacture.
By contrast, the same analysis conducted on the Pré back in April discovered that Palm’s smartphone costs $170 in components.
The analysts’ latest BoM breakdown was conducted on a 16GB iPhone 3G S. It discovered that the phone’s priciest part is its Flash memory, supplied by Toshiba at a cost of $24.
Apple’s second highest outgoing is the phone’s Toshiba-supplied 3.5in display module, which costs $19.25, iSuppli said.
One of the iPhone 3G S’ cheapest components is it GPS receiver, iSuppli discovered, which costs just $2.25.
The latest iPhone sports several hardware improvements over its predecessor. For example, the 3G S’ processor is 200MHz faster than the 3G model’s – a change that adds $14.46 to the BoM of each new iPhone. The 3G S also has a more powerful camera than the 3G model.
However, the analyst stressed that “the 3G S hardware feature set is not much different from that of the 3G” and so concluded that, from a component and design perspective, Apple’s able to produce the 3G S “at only a slightly higher materials and manufacturing cost” than the model’s forerunner.
It’s worth remembering, though, that Apple’s $179 BOM doesn’t include additional costs, such as software development, shipping, distribution and packaging. ®
COMMENTS
No Phone in iPhone?
$60 for Screen, memory, CPU, GPS, so no mention of the phone then?!?!
Given continued lack of HSUPA it"s a good job the camera only outputs 1MB files to upload.
Perhaps this time we can hope for good receiver sensitivity (though we are clearly going to have to wait longer for sensible antenna placement i.e. not shielded behind your hand!), full 3GPP compliance and apps that echo BBs meagre battery and data requirements?
O2 have sold out.
I rang up to upgrade today to the 3gs from my 1st gen and they haven't got any 16gb ones in stock.
Nor could they be more specific about when they'd have them in than some time this week.
A little bit frustrating.
Still, I have to admit I have broadband and my mobile phone with O2 and so far they are the best people I have used for both.
Pretty much always have signal on the phone, and get a steady 20MB connection (for £3.95 after a load of cashback offers).
And the point is?
I read this article expecting to find some conclusion at the end thus making it worth my time. I know us Reg readers are meant to be clever, but do we really have to draw our own conclusions?
Iphone costs 9$ more than Pre and...and....um....?
I'm lazy - can you fill in the gaps please?
Compact Discs
CDs are sold for for approx £10 yet the CD costs pence to make.
So why aren't CDs £1 or less? oh yes, recording costs, wages, artist royalties etc..
Interesting article
When you consider the iphone costs that much in dollars and due to the horrendous maths in America / England exchange rates and you get ridiculous prices quoted in the UK for an iphone.
Or you are locked into O2 (Horrendous company from my experience) for a couple of years for the benefit of having one.
Not that I can see a benefit, you can have all the $0.99 apps you like, itunes is not a selling point and the third incantation of the phone now has copy and paste, so as a busy phone it is pointless.
Then again it doesn't run windows mobile 6. Which is a bigger bonus. :)
I would like to see things like the HTC diamond2 and touch pro2 broken down in a similar manner.
