Every time a new smartphone comes out, the guys at iSuppli get their paws on it and open it up. They rummage around inside and identify all the components to give us an extimate of just how much the parts are worth. This inevitably depresses anyone that spent money on the device in question. In their recent iPhone 4 teardown, iSuppli was able to deduce the new Apple phone is composed of $187.51 worth of hardware.
The most expensive element of the phone is the so-called "Retina Display", which clocks in at $28.50 from manufacturer LG. The NAND flash memory cost nearly as much at $27 for 16GB. The Apple A4 CPU also added noticeably to the cost at $10.75 from maker Samsung. These rundowns of cost obviously do not include R&D costs, or labor. Although, we hear Foxconn works cheap.
This parts list is par for the course. The iPhone 3GS was found to be worth $179 when it came out. Google's Nexus One had hardware costing $174.15 at launch. The 16GB iPhone 4 that was checked out goes for $199 on contract or $599 unsubsidized. This seeming disparity is probably just a fact of mobile life we'll have to live with.
Comments are closed on this article
arung
October 28, 2010 at 12:30am
For the most people this is only waste your money but it depend on which the most people see, for intereprener they will do something different like they have a plan to make app to sell and listed in app store.
iPhone app development :: iPad app development :: Blackberry app development
Glycerin
July 03, 2010 at 4:45pm
Steve Jobs likes you or, more importantly, the money in your wallet. Then once he gets your money in trade for his crappy hardware, he doesn't give a rats ass about you anymore. I'll never ever buy Apple products, I wish they'd go out of business.
stradric
June 29, 2010 at 5:41am
Apparently cell phone consumers are idiots because they are willing to pay 2.5x what the product is actually worth. It's become a fashion accessory and people are willing to pay a premium to look cool (also why apple marketing is so effective by creating this image). Granted, most people don't pay full price for these devices, but the ones that do are fools (ya, I said it).
Video gamers on the other hand are smart in comparison. Sony was forced for a long time (might still be) to sell the PS3 at a loss because gamers apparently are frugal and like to pay what the thing is actually worth (and then get raped on games).
Point is, if millions of morons weren't lining up in sweltering heat to get the next slightly better iteration of the iPhone for $500, everyone else would benefit with more reasonable pricing. I still don't own a smart phone. I'd love to have one, but I don't think it's necessary and I certainly don't think it's worth the cost -- especially being that I already pay around $200/month for FiOS. I'd also rather be a social member of society instead of burying my head into my smart phone every chance I can (i.e. waiting on line for coffee, sitting at lunch with coworkers, etc).
mean_jellybean
June 29, 2010 at 6:31am
Don't get too high on yourself. The mark-up on cell phones is NOTHING compared to much of what's out there, much of which, you, like everyone else owns. Audio equipment? Video equipment? 5-10 times that mark-up.
K0BALT
June 28, 2010 at 9:47pm
I'd be interested to see what other things actually cost... such as high-end video cards and motherboards.
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poee
June 28, 2010 at 8:02pm
"Although, we hear Foxconn works cheap."
Unfortunately, I had a mouthful of coffee when I got to that line. Ah well, my monitor needed cleaning anyway.
thetechchild
June 28, 2010 at 10:09pm
The title is self-explanatory. (Or, if not, Google "foxconn suicides") (and I nearly [but not quite] take that joke offensively, being a yellow fellow myself...)
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