Comparing the iPhone 3G, Bold, and G1 on the inside

The fact that Apple's only phone is the iPhone may not be in Apple's favor when it comes to being able to purchase component parts in bulk. HTC, which makes a lot more than the G1, can produce T-Mobile's Android phone cheaply.

If we assume for a moment that the software and touch-screen controls offer exactly the same value to each of the three most prominent offerings among this year's smartphones -- Apple's iPhone 3G, Research in Motion's BlackBerry Bold, and HTC and T-Mobile's G1 -- which manufacturer gives you the most hardware value? The teardown artists at hardware analysis firm iSuppli have just torn apart a G1, and the surprise is that the one that does not have a touchscreen is actually more expensive than one that does, according to its estimates.

Each BlackBerry Bold, according to iSuppli numbers released late last month, costs $158.16 for materials and another $11.25 to build. Meanwhile, a preliminary estimate of the G1's bill of materials (BOM) comes up to $143.89, not counting manufacturing costs, according to numbers released this morning.

Though while Apple's costs have declined considerably since the winter of 2007, when it released the first iPhone, July estimates still show it pays about $164 in materials for each iPhone, and about $10 to assemble one.

What are the key differences? Although the Bold doesn't have a touchscreen, its display isn't exactly cheap. It pays an estimated $16 for each Samsung 320 x 480 TFT display component. HTC doesn't pay much more for its own display component, whose manufacturer(s) iSuppli has yet to disclose -- the G1's display is indeed a touchscreen, but unlike the iPhone, not a multi-touch. It costs HTC an estimated $19.67. That's about what Apple pays also, though last July, iSuppli estimated Apple pays an additional $20 to "improve" the touch screen (the precise nature of those improvements has also not been disclosed).

Memory is the single highest-priced component for the iPhone 3G, at $22.80 for 8 GB of Toshiba NAND flash. The BlackBerry Bold, meanwhile, uses 8 GB of Samsung's NAND flash; but perhaps because the Bold isn't RIM's only smartphone and because Samsung is known to give discounts for bulk purchases (case in point, Apple's iPod), RIM pays only $10.45 per unit. Memory is cheap for the G1, costing only $9.70; its manufacturer has not yet been disclosed.

For both the G1 and the Bold, the baseband -- the component which handles the actual 3G transmission -- is the most expensive. The G1's HSDPA baseband combines an ARM11 multimedia processor and an ARM7 core function processor (final manufacturer not listed yet), for a total cost per unit of $28.49. RIM pays a big chunk for its baseband processor, a 624 MHz Marvell PXA9xx, with estimated cost per unit at $34.34. Apple uses a pair of Infineon ARM processors -- an ARM926 and an ARM7 -- though it pays only $15, according to iSuppli. (To be honest, one wonders whether that undisclosed $20 touchscreen improvement is a cost that actually belongs to the Infineon baseband processors -- that would actually make more sense.) Apple also pays an additional $13.50 for a separate Samsung application processor.

The one thing the iPhone (famously) doesn't have is a keypad. That's not a major loss from Apple's perspective: The Bold keypad assembly costs RIM an estimated $1.88 per unit, while so far, whatever HTC pays for its fold-out keypad assembly is being chalked up for now under "Other Components."

It's possible to purchase an unlocked G1 without a T-Mobile contract for about $600 on the street. So while it sells for $179 for a two-year contract (plus as much as $35 extra per month for a data agreement), you can see where HTC eventually gets a sizable margin. By comparison, AT&T is believed to pay Apple a $300 subsidy per unit, bringing Apple's take-home to around $500. But Apple has one more expense that HTC does not: an intellectual property royalties fee of about $50. HTC may owe some in royalties, but none of it to Google, the caretaker of the Android system, which is licensed royalty-free. The BlackBerry Bold's street price is about $650, and RIM, of course, owns much of its own IP.

ISuppli has yet to reveal a teardown analysis of the forthcoming BlackBerry Storm, the full touchscreen model with tactile feedback, due later this year in the US from Verizon Wireless.