iSuppli: Nokia N8 No Cheaper to Build than iPhone 4

Posted 10/14/2010 at 5:07am | by Paul Lilly

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Say what you want about how Nokia's N8 smartphone stacks up to Apple's iPhone 4, but at a minimum, the two devices share one trait in common: Bill of Materials (BOM).

According to iSuppli, the N8's BOM comes out to $187.47. If you want to split hairs over four cents, then technically Apple's iPhone 4 costs more to produce. Otherwise, the two are identical in terms of component parts.

"The N8's BOM shows Nokia is targeting the product squarely at the touchscreen smartphone segment now dominated by the iPhone," said Andrew Rassweiler, director, principal analyst and teardown services manager, iSuppli. "Although the two phones differ markedly in key areas, including th camera and core silicon, both are designated to hit similar production cost budgets."

While the costs are nearly identical, the parts in each device are not. The N8, for example, makes use of a CMOS sensor with a 12-megapixel resolution, whereas the iPhone 4 goes up to 5 megapixels. At $31.08, the camera subsystem is the third most costly part of the N8.

The N8's display ranks as the most expensive piece of hardware. It uses an AMOLED screen, while the iPhone 4 comes with an 3.5-inch LCD screen using In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology.

Get the full breakdown here.