Palm handset beat 8Gb iPhone in cost of goods
EE Times
(06/08/2009 7:00 PM EDT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Apple Inc. leapfrogged the Palm Pre with the announcement of its iPhone 3GS Monday (June 
and undercut the Pre by dropping existing iPhone prices to $99. Palm, however, undercut Apple slightly in the cost of hardware in handsets with 8 Gbytes flash.
The new iPhone 3GS uses an upgraded application processor, baseband and more NAND flash memory to deliver new media capabilities at $199 for a 16 Gbyte model. That’s the same price—figuring in a $100 rebate–as the Pre released Saturday (June 6) with 8 Gbytes flash.
Teardown specialist Portelligent (Austin) estimates the cost of goods of the Pre at just under $160. That compared favorably with the existing iPhone 3G with 8 Gbytes flash that Portelligent pegged at $173.
By comparison the HTC Dream—the first phone to use the Google Android software—cost $143 in hardware to build but had less than 256 Mbytes of flash, according to Portelligent, a division of TechInsights which publishes EE Times.
Details of the Pre teardown including photographs of its internals were released on June 7.
Initial reports said lines of consumers looking to buy the Pre at retail shops over the weekend were significantly lower than those for the first two generations of iPhones.
The new iPhone 3GS now supports HSDPA networks with downloads of speeds up to 7.2 Mbits/second, implying a new baseband processor. It also sports new video, graphics and audio capabilities, implying a significantly upgraded applications processor, said Jeff Brown, principal analyst at Portelligent.
The 3GS can record video at 30 frames/second at VGA resolution. Its camera has been upgraded to an autofocus version supporting 3 Mpixel resolutions.
The camera also has built in video editing capabilities and a feature that allows the camera to focus on whatever spot a user touches on the phone’s LCD. The phone also supports limited voice recognition for hands-free operation.
“All these features will require a significantly more powerful apps processor,” said Brown.
The new iPhones use an upgraded version of the Apple operating system announced earlier this year. Apple said it has put more than 50,000 applications for the iPhone in its App Store.
A 32 Gbyte iPhone 3GS costs $299. The new phones will be available June 19, but the lowered price on existing phones begins immediately.
Separately, Apple announced a new version of its computer operating system that has expanded support for multi-threading. The Snow Leopard software will be available as an upgrade in September for $29.