Market research firm iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Service has taken apart the iPhone 3G and has issued a preliminary estimate of $174.33 for the cost of materials and manufacturing of the 8GB iPhone 3G, compared to its estimate of $227 for the original 8GB iPhone. iSuppli found several chips from Infineon AG in the phone, including the HSDPA/WCDMA/EDGE baseband chip, an RF transceiver and a GPS solution, along with a Samsung ARM processor, Toshiba flash memory, three power amplifier modules from TriQuint Semiconductor, a Marvell Wi-Fi chip, a Bluetooth solution from Cambridge Silicon Radio, and more. The company notes that in addition to the its estimated bill of materials and manufacturing cost, Apple is also spending an estimated $50 on intellectual property royalties for each iPhone 3G shipped. [via BusinessWeek]
Update: Semiconductor Insights has provided iLounge with an image of the new Wolfson Micro audio codec chip found in the new iPhone 3G. During our testing of the new iPhone, which you can find details of in our comprehensive review, we found the audio from this new chip, labeled WM618OC, to sound extremely similar to the Cirrus Logic part used in the iPod classic.
