[ # ] Google Android Phone T-Mobile G1 Costs $144 to Build

/* Posted November 11th, 2008 at 11:10am */
/* Filed under Android, Apple, Gadgets, Google, iPhone */

This was the figure estimated by research firm iSuppli, which concluded that every T-Mobile G1 phone being sold should at least pay for itself in components and materials, selling for retail at $179 with a $144 bill-of-materials. Not counting the humans costs like software development, R&D or machine costs like manufacturing and packaging, each Google G1 phone generates a $35 profit. This is a modest profit compared to the iPhone, whose initial bill-of-materials estimate worked out to be $173, more than the G1 except that the iPhone, when it first came out, was selling for profit upwards of $500.

The estimate from iSuppli did not include physically dissecting the phone so a full parts teardown that was similarly done on the iPhone is not available, but they did note that the G1 has at least two processors designed by ARM, whose chips also appear in the Apple iPhone.