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iPhone 4S 16GB teardown shows $188 BOM cost

by Alistair Lowe on 21 October 2011, 10:45

Tags: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

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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.

iPhone 4S Teardown

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.

Sony CMOS Die MarkCMOS SensorCamera Module



HEXUS Forums :: 23 Comments

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What was the BOM cost of the iPhone 4?
Hoonigan
What was the BOM cost of the iPhone 4?

Initially $187.51 and later through a refresh reduced to $171.35.
I wonder what the proper total cost of each phone is.
Defiant
I wonder what the proper total cost of each phone is.

Yeah, I'd be interested to know how much it cost Apple to produce, ship and sell on these phones. I reckon it can't be much higher than $220 to completely deliver the product to the public.

It's a long shot, I know, but does anyone have any information on this?
$200 to make, and they sell it for £500 ?

Now, that's some ripoff!