Technology research firm IHS iSuppli has estimated that the cost of components in the 16-Gbyte version of the iPhone 5 from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is $199. The cost to assemble the phone is $8, yielding a total hardware cost of $207 for a phone that costs $649 without a contract from a wireless carrier.
The most expensive component is the in-cell touch screen, which iSuppli estimates to cost $44 and is supplied to Apple by LG, Japan Display Inc., and Sharp Corp. Samsung, one of Apple’s major nemeses, supplies the A6 processor for the phone and Qualcomm Corp (NASDAQ: QCOM) provides the 4G LTE connectivity chip. Korea’s Hynix supplied the flash memory for the iPhone 5 and Japan’s Elpida Memory, now owned by Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU).
Other U.S. component suppliers include Skyworks Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS), Avago Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO), Triquint Semiconductor Inc. (NASDAQ: TQNT), Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), and Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) according to a report at MarketWatch.
Shares of Apple are up 0.8% today at $704.45 after posting a new 52-week high of $705.07 earlier today. The previous 52-week range was $354.24 to $703.99.
The iPhone 5 went on sale globally today, and Apple could sell as many as 10 million units in its first weekend.
Paul Ausick
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