In January, before iPhones were available for physical teardown, iSuppli estimated a $264.85 hardware BoM and manufacturing cost for the 8Gbyte iPhone. Note that these costs do not include royalties and logistics expenses.

iPhone semiconductor winners

Infineon, a new supplier to the iPod family, was among the biggest winners in terms of semiconductor content. Infineon contributed the digital baseband, RF transceiver and power-management devices, providing much of the core communications capability of the iPhone. Altogether, Infineon's silicon content accounted for $15.25 worth of the iPhone BoM, representing 6.1 percent of the 8Gbyte version of the product's total cost.

National's contribution to the iPhone BoM is relatively small, with its lone chip in the product costing $1.50, which represents less than 1 percent of total product cost. However, the part—a serial display interface—represents an important design win for National, which has never had a part in an iPod. The chip, which connects the display to the graphics controller, uses National's Mobile Pixel Link standard, which the company has been attempting to promote for use in mobile devices. This is a significant win for National in a high-profile platform that is expected to ship in large volume.

TPK Solutions (Balda) gets touch-screen module, Epson gets display

One of the key features of the iPhone is the touch screen. iSuppli believes that the supplier for the touch-screen module in the model torn down by iSuppli was Balda of Germany, in association with its partner TPK Holding of China. The module costs an estimated $27, representing 10.8 percent of the 8Gbyte model's cost.iSuppli believes the iPhone (LCD) display itself is supplied by multiple sources: Epson Imaging Devices Corp., Sharp Corp. and Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co. Ltd. The cost of the LCD used in the iPhone is estimated at $24.50, representing 9.8 percent of the 8Gbyte version's costs.

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