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Desktop PCs have been in decline for a decade, and countless people have said their piece about it. But new evidence suggests the desktop tower’s death spiral is underway—and we’re not too broken up about it.
It’s by no means the most timely report, but apparently Apple actually has a less profitable margin on the Mac Mini than much of their other hardware, according to iSuppli, as the base Mac Mini ($599) costs $US387.14 to build.
iSuppli’s latest teardown has revealed that bill of materials cost (BOM) and manufacturing cost of the iPhone 3GS comes to $US178.96. That’s a little over $US4 more than the previous iPhone and about $US8 more than the Palm Pre.
iSuppli has issued a formal estimate for the build cost of the Palm Pre, pegging it at $US138. This undercuts the iPhone, at $US174, and even the G1, at a modest $US144. Why so cheap?
According to an iSuppli teardown, the Kindle 2 costs $US185 to build—or about half the device’s $US360 sticker price. That’s $US176.83 in parts, $8.66 in construction costs. Here’s the major component breakdown:
T-mobile’s G1 has been given the teardown treatment again by the guys at iSuppli, and their official estimate of its materials price is $143.89. The most costly part inside is the dual-ARM processor baseband at $US28.49, followed by the display at $US19.67 and the 3-megapixel cam at $US12.13. Obviously this doesn’t include external costs such as hardware and software development, packaging and the like, but it gives an interesting insight into the G1. And, even more interestingly, it’s cheaper than it’s competitor, the iPhone 3G: this runs in at $US174.33.
Two hilariously complementary news items have hit at about the same time regarding the BlackBerry Bold: first, iSuppli’s $US169 price estimate for the cost to build the handset, and second, Best Buy’s announcement that they are selling the unlocked version for $US660. iSuppli’s cost analysis reveals a handset that costs the same amount to build as the iPhone 3G, but that, even under contract, will sell for significantly more. Of course, this is all unfortunately pretty typical. [Best Buy and Digitimes]
Late last month iSuppli, the authority on gadget teardowns, released a virtual teardown estimate that the 8GB iPhone 3G cost US$173 to manufacture–only a hair away from the figure of US$174.33 they have arrived at as their official estimate. This figure does not include additional costs like software development, shipping and distribution, packaging and miscellaneous accessories included with each phone. However, it does represent nearly a US$52 drop over the cost of the original 8GB iPhone. [iSuppli]
iSuppli, an authority on taking electronics apart and figuring how much it costs to build one, has just put preliminary price tag on the iPhone 3G of US$173. That’s quite a bit higher from the US$100 analysts were quoting earlier. Because this is only a virtual teardown based on estimated parts and not a real one based on looking at stuff, the guys at iSuppli could be off by, say, US$50. But based on their estimate of US$173, the new 8GB iPhone 3G is less than the original 8GB iPhone’s cost of US$226. [iSuppli]
