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iPhone 3GS: $179 to build says iSuppli

by Laura June posted Jun 24th 2009 @ 3:20PM

iSuppli's just released its estimated cost of Apple's newest offering, the iPhone 3GS. Total costs for the 16GB model costs $178.96 to manufacture, according to them -- give or take $4.63 more than the 8GB iPhone 3G estimate from last year. It's also about $40 more than iSuppli's most recent manufacturing estimate for the Palm Pre. The estimate covers only materials, and doesn't take into account various costs such as shipping and distribution, packaging, royalty fees or all the miscellaneous accessories included with each handset. Regardless, it definitely looks like Apple's managed to step up the innards of the phone without a significant bump in costs.

iSuppli: BlackBerry Storm costs $4 more than its purchase price to build

by Thomas Ricker posted Jan 29th 2009 @ 4:46AM

In a fiscal climate where profit margin reigns intensely supreme, we've got yet another dollop of bad news to heap upon the parfait of pain that is the $199 (after $50 mail in rebate) BlackBerry Storm. Research firm, iSuppli, estimates that the cost for the components and assembly of RIM's BlackBerry Storm are just shy of $203 -- an estimate that does not include software development and uh, bug fixing costs or those attributed to patent licensing, physical distribution, marketing or anything else in the product lifecycle. The most costly component is the $35 Qualcomm MSM7600 processor that gives the Storm its dual GSM / CDMA personality. Now, $203 isn't that big of a spread compared to the per unit cost of a $175 8GB iPhone 3G, $169 BlackBerry Bold, or $144 T-Mobile G1. However, the lost ~~prophets~~ profits add up quickly when you've moved over a million units globally.

P.S. We're not implying that RIM is losing money here (the price is obviously carrier subsidized), only that the Storm is likely less profitable than its peers. But without knowing what VZW pays on a per unit basis, we can't say for sure who's getting the fiscal-shaft.

iSuppli says T-Mobile G1 costs $144 to make, nothing to love

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 12th 2008 @ 1:51PM

Teardown specialist iSuppli is at it again, digging through the G1's guts this time around in an effort to wrap its inquisitive brain around the inaugural Android handset's bill of materials. The result? $144, which naturally doesn't reflect HTC's R&D -- an additional expense that might have been unusually low for the G1 considering HTC's overwhelming expertise in manufacturing all things mobile. For the record, this is about $30 less than iSuppli's July estimate for the 8GB iPhone 3G, though the comparison isn't terribly fair considering that the G1 has a mere pittance of internal storage by comparison. There's no telling what T-Mobile pays HTC for each and every G1 it sells, but we pay $179 (or less) on contract -- so it seems HTC is making itself a nice little profit right out of the gate and customers aren't footing much of the bill. At least, not until they've gone a few months into their two-year agreements.