Rumor: The Price is Right, Estimated Costs on the Palm Pre
Published: Apr 30, 2009 [Thu] 9:00am
The Palm Pre will cost substantially less to build than the iPhone 3G did when it was new, according to a pre-launch cost breakdown by iSuppli.
According to iSuppli it will cost $138 to build the Palm Pre. But, since iSuppli did not have full access to the Pre for parts they are estimating some prices.
The multi-touch screen is expected to be the most expensive part of the device at $39.51, while the phone's Texas Instruments OMAP processor (touted as significantly faster than the iPhone's chip) costs only $11. The next most expensive after the screen would be the built-in 8GB of storage, which should cost $15.96.
Patent licenses and other royalties for certain parts of the phone technology and pre-loaded software are predicted to cost $22.61 per device, but these aren't factored into the direct cost due to possible changes. The price also doesn't factor in development, marketing, shipping and other factors involved in getting the Pre to stores and other distribution channels.
The expenses put the price of the phone at $36.33 less than the iPhone 3G. "iSuppli believes that some cost differences may depend on the multi-touch display and software, which are likely to use at least slightly different approaches than Apple. It also comes roughly a year later and is likely to have reduced the prices of some parts, like the 8GB of flash memory present in both the base iPhone and the Pre."
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