First Android phone BOM about $144, iSuppli says

SAN FRANCISCO—The first wireless handset based on Google Inc.'s Android mobile operating system carries a bill-of-materials (BOM) cost of $143.89, according to an analysis conducted by market research firm iSuppli Corp.

The T-Mobile G1 smart phone, manufactured by Taiwan's HTC Corp., was officially released on Oct. 22. The phone retails for $179.

The most costly component of the G1 is the baseband, at $28.49, or 19.8 percent of the G1's total BOM, according to iSuppli. The baseband employs a combination of an ARM11 microprocessor for multimedia applications and an ARM7 core for modem functions, iSuppli said, similar to other recent handsets the firm has examined.

The baseband and applications processor on board the G1 is Qualcomm Inc.'s MSM7201A, according to a recent teardown analysis conducted by Portelligent.

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The next most costly section of the G1 is the display, at $19.67, or 13.7 percent of the BOM. The G1's display is a 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with HVGA resolution, at 320 by 480 pixels. The camera represents the next most expensive segment, at $12.13, or 8.4 percent of total BOM costs, iSuppli said.

The camera is composed of a 3.2-MP CMOS image processor from Aptina Imaging and a flip-chip lens coil driver from Analog Devices Inc. (AD5398), according to Portelligent's teardown.

The $143.89 BOM estimate includes only the component and material costs for the G1, and doesn't account for other expenses including software, research and development, manufacturing and accessories, iSuppli said.

While it has not yet conducted its own physical teardown of the G1, iSuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) said it determined the $143.89 BOM based on information from its mobile handset cost model, which provides analysis of present and future expenses to build mobile phones with any possible feature set.

A teardown analysis of the G1 conducted last month by Portelligent produced a detailed list of the components within the product (Portelligent and EE Times are both TechInsights companies).