According to an analysis by technology research firm iSuppli Corp, Research In Motion's touchscreen BlackBerry Storm costs almost $30 more to produce than rival Apple Inc's iPhone 3G. iSuppli said that the Blackberry Storm has a materials and manufacturing cost of about $203.RIM launched the Blackberry Storm late last year to compete with the popular 8-gigabyte iPhone 3G. iSuppli Corp said the Storm's total component count stands at 1,177, while the iPhone's is 1,116.
iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Service report said that the Storm's total per-unit cost includes all parts and manufacturing, but excludes intellectual property (IP), royalties, licensing fees, software, shipping, logistics marketing, and other channel costs. The Storm's exact $202.89 total consists of $186 for components and other materials, and $16.07 for manufacturing. The total is $27 more expensive than what it costs RIM to manufacture each BlackBerry Bold.
However, the bill of materials for the Blackberry Storm totals up to $202.89; the Storm has a suggested retail price of $250 and is currently being sold with a $50 rebate from Verizon store, while the iPhone 3G costs approx $174.33 in components despite a similar retail price.
It’s an interesting point that even though the Storm and iPhone seem at first blush to share most of the same parts- LCD touchscreen, camera, cell phone chips, flash memory, GPS- Apple seems to be in a position to reap more profit of each device than RIM.
Models like the Blackberry Storm, as well as the earlier BlackBerry Pearl are all laden with multimedia features to attract non-business users.
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