iSuppli: Droid Incredible Materials Cost $165.35
| by Quentyn Kennemer on July 29th, 2010 |
In their latest findings from those entertaining teardowns we hate to watch (but somehow still love to see), iSuppli determined that all of the materials needed to make one HTC Droid Incredible incurs a bill of $165.35. While I don’t agree with iSuppli’s Andrew Rassweiler on the Droid Incredible being a “Nexus Two” candidate (they’re similar, but we would expect Google’s successor to their original “superphone” to innovate just as much as it did the first time), it’s definitely a worthy replacement for the now-retired Nexus One (retired from Google’s warehouse, anyway).
That said, I anticipate a few comments asking “well why does it cost so much if the materials cost less than the subsidized price?” Don’t forget that there’s a lot involved in the production process: manufacturing, assembly, software design and adaptation, testing (software and hardware-based), marketing, distribution, licensing, etc. There are a lot of moving parts to creating any device that will ultimately drive its costs far past the cost of materials.
1. Inspiron41 wrote on July 30, 2010
no way incredible is the successor to nexus. although the incredible is a nice phone, i expect the successor to be faster, better graphic processor (gaming of course), longer battery life (1-2 days) and sleeker.
2. JBaker wrote on July 30, 2010
The Nexus 2 will innovate the same way the Nexus One did, as Quentyn pointed out. I expect the Nexus 2 (if it ever come to light) will have a 2Ghz, or dual core, or better.
3. eris wrote on July 30, 2010
No. The question is why is incredible as expensive as iPhone sans micro SD when clearly it does not cost as much to build and the android is free to license except ms loyalty.
4. Julian wrote on July 30, 2010
The battery only costs five bucks? Idk why htc gave the incredible such a bad battery.
5. Phanatic wrote on July 30, 2010
The Sheet says total materials cost 163.35, your title says 165.35 ..
6. James! wrote on July 30, 2010
Don’t forget the cost of R&D.
7. Iknowright wrote on July 30, 2010
@Julian
I was wondering the same thing. you would think for an extra dollar they could have at least made the stock battery 1500 mAh.
8. Justin wrote on July 30, 2010
When I worked for a large semiconductor company, we had a measure of margin that related the raw materials cost to the selling price. This ratio was usually between .4 to .5. The raw materials cost did not include costs of engineering, marketing, labor, equipment, and shared expenses like electricity to keep the lights on, etc. This BOM is similarly leaving out many expenses involved in producing the finished product.
Still, it’s fascinating for two reasons: first, if an 8 GB eNAND from Hynix is less than $28, then it probably costs Hynix about half that to make. Second, if a 1300 mAh battery costs $4.60, why does a replacement cost me $40? Is Verizon not making enough money selling me data for $30 a month?
9. bean wrote on July 30, 2010
Not a nexus two more like a Nexus 1.5 just enough to be slightly better but not enough for me to not still miss some of the features th N1 had…
10. Abrown wrote on July 30, 2010
You forgot one vital thing. The company also likes to make a profit.
11. Enlight wrote on July 30, 2010
Isn’t it pretty much exactly the same as Nexus except the camera/camcorder is better?
12. Joe wrote on July 30, 2010
why does it retail for so much more than it costs to build? Because that’s what the market dictates!
13. Tim wrote on July 30, 2010
Well, this certainly makes me feel awesome about only paying $45 for mine thanks to contract renewal discounts!