Apple’s iPad costs $259.60 to build, at least for the WiFi version, says iSuppli.
Most of that cost, 40 percent, is for the dazzling touch screen. iSuppli calls this allocation of resources “a radical departure in electronic design compared to conventional products.”
iSuppli’s Andrew Rassweiler said, “The iPad’s design represents a new paradigm in terms of electronics cost structure and electronic content. Conventional notebook PCs are ‘motherboard-centric,’ with all the other functions in the system—such as the display, the keyboard and audio—peripheral to the central microprocessor and the main Printed Circuit Board (PCB) at the core. With the iPad, this is reversed. Everything is human-machine-interface-centric, with the PCB and Integrated Circuits (ICs) all there to facilitate the display of content as well as user inputs.” Got it? Most of the money went into the display.
iSuppli admitted that costs for the iPad were higher than it originally anticipated back in February, at a total of $219.35 for bill of materials (BOM) and $229.35 for manufacturing cost. The display, the battery, the user interface chips and the power management Integrated Circuits (ICs) all exceeded iSuppli’s initial estimates. Click here for chart and full press release.
Source: iSuppli
