It is always interesting to figure out how much a new gadget costs especially those that have been getting great attention like Apple’s iPhone 4. And according to iSuppli’s tear down analysis, the newly released iphone 4 is estimated to be around $188 in system BOM (Bill of Material) cost for 16GB, which is equivalent to Droid, but is slightly more expensive than iPhone 3GS (quoted at $179) since last year.



Among all, its 3.5-inch 960 x 640 IPS Retina Display manufactured by LG Display is one of the most expensive elements, which takes around $28.50 out of the total BOM cost. Besides, its own designed A4 processor fabricated by Samsung is estimated to cost $10.75, which is surprisingly cheaper than previous ARM Cortex processor at around $14.46 used in its 3GS. Some other components include the front camera, gyroscope from STMicro (estimated around $2.60), accelerometer (around $0.65) that could add additional cost into it. As you may curious which wireless chip that has been used to serve all the important wireless functions, Broadcom is the winner with its chip capable of providing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, replacing Infineon Technologies in previous 3GS and 3G models.

Apparently, Apple Inc seems to be trying to keep its budget in around $170-$180 so that it continues to earn a substantial profit margin. But as usual, the BOM cost doesn’t include its Research and Development, Marketing, logistic, IP (Intellectual Property) licensing, software development and etc but purely focus on the components’ cost. By having this, consumers may able to do a wild guess on how much profit gained by this Cupertino-based company and its components vendors by successfully pushing 1.7 million units within few days after its official launch.