Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Apple Spent Almost $179 to Build the iPhone 3G S

As per several news reports and market analysis, it seems like Apple had nearly spend $179 to build the new iPhone 3G S, which is nearly the amount it had spent to design its previous iPhone model. This is however, a bit of a surprise, as Apple has made quite a few changes in many of its major components while developing the next-generation iPhone and upgraded its features with more powerful technologies. However, no matter how much surprised people are, Apple is undoubtedly very proud of its achievement.


Since the release of iPhone 3G S, there has been much speculation regarding the amount Apple had invested in building this high-end smartphone. Well, reading this article you will get an overall idea about the amount the company had spent in order to take the iPhone to a new level and open up a new horizon for iPhone app developers as well as users.


According to an analysis, the manufacturing cost for the iPhone 3G S with 16 GB memory space was $178.96, which includes a bill of materials (BOM) cost of $172.46 and an assembling cost of $6.50. While the total cost for building the 8 GB iPhone 3G was $174.33, the cost calculated for developing the new device has been quite astonishing, considering its upgrades and improvements.


Toshiba, in terms of share of the material cost is the main supplier to Apple. The 16 GB of NAND flash memory of Toshiba cost Apple nearly $24. The company further provided the 3.5 inch, 16-million color, 320-x-480 pixel display to Apple at the price of about $19.25. Even the touch-screen assembly, which cost Apple more or less $16, is also supplied by Toshiba.


Apple used an ARM core processor from Samsung in the iPhone 3G S, which cost the company nearly $14.46. Samsung further provided 2GB of SDRAM approximately for $8.50. Infineon, the supplier of the ARM-based communications processor as well as the 3 mega-pixel camera module, charged Apple around $13 and $9.55 respectively. The company further charged Apple $2.25 for the GPS receiver, $2.80 for the RF transceiver and $1.25 for the RF power IC. Lastly, for the single chip by Broadcom, which is the source of iPhone 3G S’s Bluetooth capability Apple pays an estimated amount of $5.95.


The iPhone 3G S is available for $199, which is the exact amount that was offered for the 3G when it released last July. The 32GB model is however priced $299. Apple since its new release has dropped the price for the previous 3G model to $99. Even then, the new iPhone 3G S sold in the market like hot cakes. Apple declares that it had sold 1 million unit of the new device over its debut weekend.


According to the overall analysis of the device along with its new software upgrade and with the upcoming wave of highly innovative high-end iPhone applications, it seems that the iPhone 3G S is about to bring a revolutionary change in the world of smartphones.

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