Google's Nexus One smartphone costs $530 to buy online. The company could be making a handsome profit.

iSuppli, the semiconductor industry analyst firm, reckons the Nexus One is a $174 (£107/€120) collection of bits, chips and aluminium.

The handset has a total Bill of Materials (BoM) cost of $174.15, according to the iSuppli teardown. This does not take into account manufacturing, software, packaging or accessory costs.

Nexus One’s 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is the handset’s most expensive part, priced at $30.54 (£18.92/€21). The phone’s 3.7in Samsung touchscreen takes second place, with an estimated cost of $24.50.

Slipping a 5Mp camera in Nexus One costs Google $12.50. Addition of a Bluetooth chip, RF transceiver and power management IC – all designed by Qualcomm – set Google back just over $13.

Texas Instruments’ power management tech and lithium-ion charger are Nexus One’s cheapest part, costing Google just $1.20 (£0.74/€0.82).

Last week, the American hardware repair outfit iFixit, which is famous for its product teardowns, said the Nexus One was a 'nicely put together' smartphone. iSuppli seems to agree.

“Google has taken the most advanced features seen in recent smart phone designs and wrapped them up into a single sleek design,” said Kevin Keller, an iSuppli analyst.

iSuppli's Nexus One run-through is online now. ®