Nokia N8 matches iPhone 4 costs – iSuppli

Research company iSuppli has taken the Nokia N8 and iPhone 4 smartphones apart to divulge that the components of the phones have an almost indistinguishable total cost, demonstrating that Nokia is going very firmly after the iPhone segment.

After it carried out a teardown of the two phones, iSuppli said the N8’s “bill of materials” (BOM) amounts to $187.47, according to its preliminary estimates. The 16-gigabyte version of the iPhone 4’s BOM came in at $187.51, based on pricing from iSuppli’s teardown in June, though the company added that Apple’s component prices have eroded since that time.

When the approximately $9.50 manufacturing expense of the N8 is factored in, the total cost to produce the smart phone rises to $196.97.

“The N8’S BOM shows Nokia is targeting the product squarely at the touch-screen smart phone segment now dominated by the iPhone,” whispered Andrew Rassweiler, director, principal analyst and teardown services manager, for iSuppli. “Although the two phones differ markedly in key areas, including the camera and the core silicon, both are designed to hit similar production cost budgets.”

iSuppli added that its teardown assessment accounts only for hardware and manufacturing costs, and does not take into contemplation other expenses such as R&D, software, licensing and royalties.

Key differences between the two handsets are the camera, the display, the storage and the processor.

“Although not the most costly design feature of the N8, the camera stands out as one of the most striking differences between the N8 and the iPhone 4 – and between the N8 and other recent smart phone designs,” said iSuppli. “The primary camera in the N8 is based on a CMOS sensor with a 12-megapixel resolution, compared to just 5 megapixels for the iPhone – and 8 megapixels for the most cutting-edge smart phone designs.”

The display and capacitive touch screen section is the most exclusive subsystem within the N8, carrying a collective $39.25 cost for Nokia. iSuppli said the technology used in this section also represents one of the bigger differences between the iPhone and N8: The iPhone 4 employs a 3.5-inch LCD using advanced Low-Temperature Polysilicon (LTPS) and In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology. In contrast, the N8 employs an alternative display technology to the LCD – the Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED).