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eewiz
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fatihsim
Now, at the rate current rate of innovation in this industry, it isnt very far ...
Samsung Galaxy S4 BoM pegged at $236
Dylan McGrath
3/20/2013 4:18 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO--The HSPA+ version of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s Galaxy S4 smartphone carries a bill of materials (BoM) of $236, significantly higher than its predecessor, according to a virtual teardown conducted by market research firm IHS iSuppli.
The S4 BoM is $30.40 higher than the BoM for the equivalent version of the Galaxy S III, said IHS, which conducted a teardown of the S III in September 2012. The S4 BoM is 15 percent higher. An advanced display included in the S4 makes up much of the difference, IHS said.
Vincent Leung, senior analyst for cost benchmarking at IHS, said through a statement that the S4 features largely the same hardware as the S III, but that some components were updated to enhance functionality, thereby increasing the BoM cost.
"Among the upgrades are a larger, full high-definition (HD) display; a beefed-up Samsung processor; and a wealth of new sensors that set a record high for the number of such devices in a smartphone design," Leung said. "And despite the larger display and other changes, the Galaxy S4 has roughly the same width and the same ease of handling as the Galaxy S III."
Total cost to produce the HSPA+ S4 with 16 gigabytes of NAND flash memory is roughly $244, including $8.50 for manufacturing costs, IHS said.
IHS (El Segundo, Calif.) said it conducted the virtual teardown of the S4 from information and device specifications released by Samsung, combined with information regarding known components and suppliers.
Click on image to enlarge.
The S4 features a full-HD active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display from Samsung Display with a pixel format of 1,920 by 1,080, IHS said. This compares to the 1,280 by 720 WXGA resolution display in the S III, the firm said.
The S4’s HD display and touch-screen subsystem is estimated to carry a cost of $75, up from $65 for the S III, IHS said. This represents the single largest area of cost increase for the S4 compared to the S III, according to IHS.
"While many brands have released smartphone models using full-HD LCD displays, the S4 represents the first with an AMOLED display at this resolution," said Vinita Jakhanwal, director for small & medium displays at IHS
Samsung is believed to be using an Exynos 5 Octa applications processor in the HSPA+ version of the S4, IHS said. The devices is an eight-core chip manufactured with Samsung’s on 28-nanometer process technology.
The Galaxy S III featured a quad-core Exynos apps processor . The cost of the Galaxy S4’s processor is estimated at $30, compared to $17.50 for the chip in the Galaxy S III, IHS said.
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The S4 BoM is $30.40 higher than the BoM for the equivalent version of the Galaxy S III, said IHS, which conducted a teardown of the S III in September 2012. The S4 BoM is 15 percent higher. An advanced display included in the S4 makes up much of the difference, IHS said.
Vincent Leung, senior analyst for cost benchmarking at IHS, said through a statement that the S4 features largely the same hardware as the S III, but that some components were updated to enhance functionality, thereby increasing the BoM cost.
"Among the upgrades are a larger, full high-definition (HD) display; a beefed-up Samsung processor; and a wealth of new sensors that set a record high for the number of such devices in a smartphone design," Leung said. "And despite the larger display and other changes, the Galaxy S4 has roughly the same width and the same ease of handling as the Galaxy S III."
Total cost to produce the HSPA+ S4 with 16 gigabytes of NAND flash memory is roughly $244, including $8.50 for manufacturing costs, IHS said.
IHS (El Segundo, Calif.) said it conducted the virtual teardown of the S4 from information and device specifications released by Samsung, combined with information regarding known components and suppliers.
Click on image to enlarge.
The S4 features a full-HD active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display from Samsung Display with a pixel format of 1,920 by 1,080, IHS said. This compares to the 1,280 by 720 WXGA resolution display in the S III, the firm said.
The S4’s HD display and touch-screen subsystem is estimated to carry a cost of $75, up from $65 for the S III, IHS said. This represents the single largest area of cost increase for the S4 compared to the S III, according to IHS.
"While many brands have released smartphone models using full-HD LCD displays, the S4 represents the first with an AMOLED display at this resolution," said Vinita Jakhanwal, director for small & medium displays at IHS
Samsung is believed to be using an Exynos 5 Octa applications processor in the HSPA+ version of the S4, IHS said. The devices is an eight-core chip manufactured with Samsung’s on 28-nanometer process technology.
The Galaxy S III featured a quad-core Exynos apps processor . The cost of the Galaxy S4’s processor is estimated at $30, compared to $17.50 for the chip in the Galaxy S III, IHS said.
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- Samsung Galaxy S 4: What's missing?
- London Calling: PowerVR confirmed in Samsung's 'Octa'
- Samsung turns up buzz on Galaxy S IV
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eewiz
3/20/2013 11:58 PM EDT
236$ BOM and the phone is sold for ~600$. Theres a lot of room for other Asian vendors, to simply compete on price. I feel in another 3-5 years ASP of a top smartphone like this will drop to 300$. Already Nexus 4 and Xiaomi(top brand in china) are being sold for ~300$
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docdivakar
3/21/2013 6:35 PM EDT
There is also the dealer / major distributor margin that must be factored in to the $600 list price tag. My guess is that Samsung will probably see a healthy margin over the scrubbed BOM/COGS but it won't be 150%.
MP Divakar
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woohoo
3/22/2013 6:40 AM EDT
236$ BOM and the phone is sold for ~600$. Who will account for all the R&D, marketing, distribution costs?? Surely, after all the court battles Sammy is no longer going to rely on just mimicking features. I agree that 600 is a tad too much but people are happy to pay then why not? Do Appl have exclusive rights to be the only rip-off allowed in this world?
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eewiz
3/22/2013 8:25 AM EDT
@woohoo. In the new world you cant make money in hardware unless you are super innovative. Yes Apple and samsung are in that category for now. But like any other industy, once the smartphone industry matures(ie becomes like todays notebook industry) you cant command a premium price, unless you have something super unique. Now, at the rate current rate of innovation in this industry, it isnt very far IMO. Also in another 1-2 years Amazon is going to release a smartphone(an educated guess) which does pretty much everything that sammy does for ~250$, they will make money out of the phone primarly from services and selling the devices at cost. Already if you check Xiaomi/Google Nexus handset, it is pretty much up there with sammy for 300$. Apple still has a distant chance of its uniqueness in OS. But their volumes may not be sustainable too.
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tangey
3/21/2013 11:17 AM EDT
Samsung CE is paying 50% more for an Soc from its own group, than it is from a 3rd party ?
Question is, why bother ?
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m00nshine
3/21/2013 3:29 PM EDT
Better question is at vertically integrated company, what is true BOM cost when supplying to yourself?
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Dave1010101
3/21/2013 12:09 PM EDT
Broken link on the "large image" of chart
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CommonSense
3/21/2013 2:18 PM EDT
Link is still broken.
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cordovan66
3/21/2013 3:50 PM EDT
Regarding the broken link, remove the trailing period to make it work.
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docdivakar
3/21/2013 6:37 PM EDT
Nice catch! It worked...
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GeeKv2
3/22/2013 4:29 AM EDT
Why is the thumbnail pic of the HTC One? Come on EEtimes, you are better than this.
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eewiz
3/22/2013 8:15 AM EDT
haha yeah. I too thought the same :)
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GeLy-MyOtherRideIsABMWS1000RRScooter
3/22/2013 11:30 AM EDT
What's amazing is that they can build it at $8.50. I'll gladly pay $600+ or whatever for awesome tech stuff, than spend this $ at a couples of Vikings game.
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selinz
3/23/2013 11:55 AM EDT
I still find it amazing that I can go to Fry's (or whereever) and find a laptop for less than $300! But in fairness, the laptop at that price is not 1080p. But that includes a MS operating system, etc. Samsung is as good as anyone at dropping the price until sales meet production capacity and I suspect that they will do the same here...
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fatihsim
3/24/2013 8:14 AM EDT
Now, at the rate current rate of innovation in this industry, it isnt very far IMO. Also in another 1-2 years Amazon is going to release a smartphone(an educated guess) which does pretty much everything that sammy does for ~250$, they will make money out of the phone primarly from services and selling the devices at cost. http://www.medikalurunler.com Already if you check Xiaomi/Google Nexus handset, it is pretty much up there with sammy for 300$. Apple still has a distant chance of its uniqueness in OS. But their volumes may not be sustainable too.
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eewiz
3/25/2013 12:12 AM EDT
wt? robot trolls copy user comments and insert ad links for SEO!
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