Nokia's Lumia 900 Smartphone Costs $217 to Build, Says IHS iSuppli
After you add up the price of all the parts, Nokia's shiny new Lumia 900 smartphone carries a bill of materials (BOM) in the neighborhood of $209, according to a teardown analysis by IHS iSuppli. Factor in another $8 for manufacturing fees and the cost to build the Windows Phone device everyone is talking about comes out to $217, or 46 percent of the Lumia 900's $450 retail price sans contract.
Of course, most people are going to purchase the phone on contract with a two-year service agreement, which knocks the price of the phone down to $100 via AT&T. Between now and April 21st, Nokia will kick in a $100 credit to your AT&T phone bill, making the phone free. Alternately, you can pick up a Lumia 900 from Amazon for $50.
"With the Lumia 900, Nokia, Microsoft and Qualcomm have taken a page from Apple Inc.’s playbook by closely tying together the hardware and software to produce a full-featured smartphone that is based on relatively inexpensive electronic components," said Andrew Rassweiler, senior principal analyst, teardown services, at IHS. "One of Apple’s advantages over Android has been the company’s complete control of both the hardware and operating system software, helping it to produce efficient and economical iPhone designs. For the Lumia 900, Nokia and Microsoft worked in close partnership with Qualcomm to develop and optimize the software stack in order to take full advantage of the hardware. But while Apple capitalizes on its low hardware costs to attain industry-leading margins, Nokia is using this approach to offer an inexpensive phone intended to compete on the basis of price."
The touchscreen display is the most expensive component on the Lumia 900, accounting for $58 of the manufacturing cost. After that, it's the wireless section that costs the most ($38), followed by the memory ($27) and everything else. Incidentally, the processor only costs $17.
You can read our review of the Nokia Lumia 900 here.
Of course, most people are going to purchase the phone on contract with a two-year service agreement, which knocks the price of the phone down to $100 via AT&T. Between now and April 21st, Nokia will kick in a $100 credit to your AT&T phone bill, making the phone free. Alternately, you can pick up a Lumia 900 from Amazon for $50.
"With the Lumia 900, Nokia, Microsoft and Qualcomm have taken a page from Apple Inc.’s playbook by closely tying together the hardware and software to produce a full-featured smartphone that is based on relatively inexpensive electronic components," said Andrew Rassweiler, senior principal analyst, teardown services, at IHS. "One of Apple’s advantages over Android has been the company’s complete control of both the hardware and operating system software, helping it to produce efficient and economical iPhone designs. For the Lumia 900, Nokia and Microsoft worked in close partnership with Qualcomm to develop and optimize the software stack in order to take full advantage of the hardware. But while Apple capitalizes on its low hardware costs to attain industry-leading margins, Nokia is using this approach to offer an inexpensive phone intended to compete on the basis of price."
The touchscreen display is the most expensive component on the Lumia 900, accounting for $58 of the manufacturing cost. After that, it's the wireless section that costs the most ($38), followed by the memory ($27) and everything else. Incidentally, the processor only costs $17.
You can read our review of the Nokia Lumia 900 here.
