Over the past several days, following availability of the iPhone 4S, several dissection reports of the phone have cropped up around the Internet, chipworks.com even went as far as X-raying the new camera CMOS sensor to discover its maker.
These reports show that the iPhone 4S 16GB bill of materials (BOM) has increased from previous $171.35 estimate of the Verizon iPhone 4, to a preliminary $188, an increase of $16.65, or almost ten per cent. BOM does not take account of the suspected $8 manufacturing cost.
This falls significantly short of analyst expectations of a 23 per cent rise in BOM for Apple’s next-generation smartphone, though analysts were of course expecting the iPhone 5 and not the 4S. The figure is exceptionally close to the AT&T original iPhone 4 which had a BOM of $187.51.
Dissection reports from iSuppli show that this change in costing can be attributed largely to the move to an A5 dual-core processor and increased expenditure in power-management technology to support the interesting new multi-standard 3G radio functionality, which itself also contributed to a significant increase in cost.
Unlike with most other smartphones, the new radio capabilities of the iPhone 4S allow for connections on all 3G bands and formats, which, given the poor roaming capabilities seen on older iPhone models is much welcomed. When you consider that the iPhone still lacks 4G LTE functionality whilst other smartphone manufacturers are reducing their margins to include it, it’s a bit of a let-down.
Oh and in case you were wondering, the camera really is made by Sony, with, as always, OmniVision as a suspected secondary supplier.
