Brier Dudley's Blog

Brier Dudley offers a critical look at technology and business issues affecting the Northwest.

June 24, 2009 at 12:53 PM

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iPhone 3GS teardown: Apple's cost $179, added FM tuner

Hardware analysis firm iSuppli has posted one of its fascinating teardown reports, on the iPhone 3G S, showing the source of components and estimating the manufacturing costs.

It estimated the 16 gigabyte phone's parts cost $172.46 and manufacturing costs are $6.50, for a total of $178.96. That's up just a bit from iSuppli's $174.,33 estimate for the previous 8 gigabyte iPhone 3G.

Backing up the speed claim, the new device has a 600 Mhz ARM processor made by Samsung, up from the previous model's 400 Mhz processor.

One intriguing tidbit: Apple switched to a Broadcom wireless chip that has FM radio capability, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Previously the iPhone used a Marvell WLAN chip and a Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth circuit.

Could FM capabilities finally be coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch? An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Here are few images from the iSuppli report, used with the company's permission:

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iPhone 3GS teardown: Apple's cost $179, added FM tuner

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