Palm Pre Cheaper To Build Than BlackBerry Storm, iPhone And T-Mobile G1
All eyes are on the Palm Pre at the moment, with many curious to see whether their latest device will mark a phoenix-like ascension from the flames for the smartphone maker, or serve as their epitaph. What is certain to be a huge contributing factor to the handset’s success or failure is the final price.
Too expensive and the phone will never gain traction in the marketplace, too cheap and it might not generate enough cash to dig Palm out of their financial quagmire.
What we do now know courtesy of number crunching research company iSuppli is that the Pre costs around just $138 (£93.50) to manufacture, sailing way below the production costs of competing handsets like the BlackBerry Storm ($203/£137.50), Apple’s iPhone 3G ($174/£117.90) and the T-Mobile G1 ($144/£97.50).
With the internal processor costing $11, memory for 16 bucks and the 3 megapixel camera a mere $12, it seems like the Pre will turn a tidy profit for Palm when it finally comes to market.
iSuppli suggests that the savings are due to the wholesale price for many key components decreasing in recent months, lowering the overall cost.
It might be cheaper to build in terms of individual units, but the immense spend on the Pre’s development, the Web OS operating system and its tremendously aggressive marketing push must far outweigh the savings made on the device’s internal architecture…
We shall see whether Palm’s all-in gamble was worth it when the Pre is released later this year.
Source: Information Week