Droid more valuable than Nexus One or iPhone 3GS according to iSuppli
By Thomas Ricker 
posted January 15th 2010 3:04AM
posted January 15th 2010 3:04AM
Ah, here we go again: another report from iSuppli breaking down the bill of materials (BOM) for one of our favorite smartphones. This time it's the Droid / Milestone under scrutiny, Motorola's beefcake slider that currently sells for $560 month-to-month on Verizon ($199 on contract). According to iSuppli's analysis, Droid brings a $187.75 bill of materials that breaks down into $179.11 worth of components and $8.64 in manufacturing costs. Naturally, the BOM does not include licensing fees, software costs, accessories, or the massive outlay this device has received in advertising support. Nevertheless, it makes for interesting apples-to-apples fodder when comparing costs with the Nexus One ($174.15 in materials only), iPhone 3GS ($178.96 materials and manufacturing), and original Palm Pre ($138 materials and manufacturing). The single most expensive component on the Droid is the 16GB removable microSD card ($35) bundled with the Droid. And after a controversial MOTO report that demonstrated a lackluster capacitive touchscreen on the Droid, it's interesting to compare the Droid's 3.7-inch TFT LCD ($17.75) and capacitive touchscreen overlay ($17.50) with that of the iPhone 3GS ($19.25 spent on a smaller 3.5-inch LCD and cheaper $16 touchscreen overlay) and Nexus One (whopping $23.50 for 3.7-inch AM-OLED display and $17.50 for the touchscreen assembly). Rounding out the top-end costs are the Droid's 5 megapixel autofocus CMOS sensor ($14.25), Qualcomm baseband processor / RF chip ($14.04), and TI application processor ($12.90).
I'm not against this useful information being out there. I am however against people complaining about product prices as a result of them.
Don't do it, kids.
Great article by the way.
@Broderbund
Lol, the information is hardly useful... just interesting.
@Broderbund I would have to agree with @mrmckeb in that this information is hardly useful and more just interesting. But it was still a good article.
@Broderbund i will still like to know the license cost for the software. im tired of people justifying the cost by saying r&d and marketing neither are that expensive especially marketing because the carrier usually markets the phone. i'll wait till licensing fees are release before i make my final verdict.
@saturnblackhole i work in product development and design. new products don't grow on trees or magically materialize from the brains of designers. r&d includes the cost of tooling, materials testing, and so many other things, even in the age of rapid prototyping there is SO mcuh backstory to a device finally making it to your hands, sorry, but your's is a truly ignorant comment.
@Broderbund
Great article? iSuppli looks at the cost of PARTS and tries to claim that's the 'cost' of certain gadgets... eh.. pretty facile, if you ask me.
They make assumptions about whether or not, say, Motorola, got volume discounts (Apple always gets a good deal because they buy 50 million units)
"Labor costs?" Meh, too much work to find out..
"R/D costs?" Uh? Whats that.
iSuppli just makes geeks cry about imaginary profit margins and complain about high priced toys.
@mrmckeb Yes, especially when you found out that the price for the LCD screen of droid: iPhone 3GS are only cents different. Anyway, the 174 total hardware cost of N1 was really cute. Hopefully, Goog won't decrease the price abruptly just after users bought this one at 530 usd.
Breakdown Details: http://bit.ly/nexus-one-updates-detail-opinions
iSuppli (in the future) should include cost beyond just the hardware -- But I guess it'll be too hard for them especially if G won't conceal it for public reckoning.
Haha, the wonderful aspects of R&D. After proto-types, once mass production has begain build cost go down hill and consumer price heads up. If Motorola sends me the parts I will assemble the DROID myself.
@aaronaut
hey man your right,but would you tell me a pc or a notebook with all its part and its complexity and its advanced programing is grown from tree ?????that is so cheap in compare with an droid or iphone
with the money expending for an iphone 3gs 32gb i can buy a very powerfull notebook that they work so so much more on its stability and compatiblity in compare with a smartphone
droid does.
@nicholiservia Umm... Android 2.0 IS Eclair. And the Droid will be getting 2.1.
@xberxinfinity I wish I wish I wish that T-Mo would launch the droid. So hot.
This is a good trend for iSuppli to do this on new smartphones. I hope they do it for more phones outside the usual suspects.
@pika2000 It's nice to see the numbers but the question HAS to be asked:
"How accurate are the numbers?"
I just noticed that the article is incorrect about the costs, anyway - Pre was $170, not $138.
(that is to say, all these phones pretty much cost the same amount to make)
@Freakin Ijit Well, yeah. They all cost around the same as many of the components are similar. Imo the cost doesn't have to dead accurate as iSuppli won't know whatever deal/rebates Apple/HTC/Moto/etc got for placing big orders with the component manufactures. At least this will show roughly the markups of cellphones prices, and question the so-called "subsidy" of locked phones by the wireless carriers.
N900 more valuable than droid.
"bill of materials" - "removable memory"
$174.15 - $8.50 = $165.65
$179.11 - $35 = $144.11
ie. the Nexus One as a machine is more valuable, it seems to me...
Iphone killer... YEAH RIGHT
Get real....
@james23
Multitasking FTW!
@ChazClout
On the 3GS? It's pretty awesome isn't it, Chaz?
Oh wait. You didn't know the 3GS could multitask? Doh
@pukerocket
Sorry, but having to "hack" your phone to get it to multi-task doesn't count. The 3gs is VERY capable of multitasking and a host of different features, but the "fragmentation" of android that apple fanboi's love to mock is what allows the platform to mature so fast. Apple's habit of making everything backwards compatible is what is crippling the 3GS (as jailbreaking shows)
You better hope they don't continue the habit for the next generation of iphones
Interestingly, the different chassis doesn't make a difference. I had expected the Droid's sliding keyboard to cost more, and the Nexus One's metal body can't be cheap either.
I'm looking forward to the day we can upgrade our mobile devices ourselves by buying and replacing components. Kinda like desktops.
Mmmmm....components.....
it means that we ( consumers ) pay about 400$ for android on Neus
and more than 500$ for os x on iphone ...
and think about that we pay about nothing for windows 7
its disgusting
it means that we ( consumers ) pay about 400$ for android on Neus
and more than 500$ for os x on iphone ...
and think about that we pay about nothing for windows 7
its disgusting
No way the phone is not valuable. Just how much is Android OS? nothing at least with Iphone or Palm you pay for the nice OS... what you get here? Recycled Razer
@kyphem
1) you've obviously not handled an android device before, let alone a droid.
2) This phone is very different from the razor (see #1)
3) These cost breakdowns don't take RD, manufacturing, etc into account. They are interesting for numbers, but not as actual facts to base arguments off of about price gouging.
@Menno hehe that was actually a sarcastic message :) and yea the only phone I didn't try out yet is Nexus One, android OS needs some speed the Hero was laggy
I would gladly pay $197.50 for my iPhone and have the higher res Droid screen.
Very interesting report by iSuppli on the material cost of these devices, but they don't answer the most pertinent question :
"Will they blend?"