The first phone to be built on Google’s Android operating system, which T-Mobile is selling for $179 in the United States, costs $144 for the components and materials, research firm iSuppli said.
The T-Mobile G1, made by Taiwan’s HTC, has a touch screen and full keyboard as well as popular Google applications such as search, maps and mail. And it is considered the most likely contender to the iconic status of Apple’s iPhone.
iSuppli said its “bill-of-materials” estimate of $144 does not include costs for software, research and development, manufacturing or accessories, and was based on a cost model rather than a physical examination of the phone.
The iPhone 3G cost of materials is $174.33, according to iSuppli. If the analysis is correct, Apple is spending about $53 less on materials than it did with the first iPhone, which iSuppli says costs $227 to make.
It has not yet conducted a physical teardown to determine whose components are inside the phone, but said on Tuesday the G1 contained a multimedia microprocessor and modem core designed by Britain’s ARM.
The G1 supports the HSDPA air interface at the 1700/2100 bands for 3G, which limits its U.S. end users to T-Mobile subscribers. However, the G1 is suitable for markets outside the United States using the 2100 frequency band.In contrast, the iPhone 3G supports the HSDPA air standard operating at the 850/1900/2100 bands. The 850/1900 bands are designed for the AT&T network. Thus, an unlocked G1 phone using an AT&T network can only achieve EDGE download speed.
The G1 comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, which comes in handy for texters. The iPhone 3G eschews a physical keyboard and instead employs a touch screen for input. Like the iPhone, the G1 includes Wi-Fi, which allows subscribers to take advantage of T-Mobile’s hotspots.
As for the touch screen, the G1 employs projective touch technology, while the iPhone 3G uses a capacitive multi-touch glass touch-screen. The G1’s screen doesn’t support multi-touch capability.
HTC’s site lists the G1 Processor as a Qualcomm MSM7201A, at 528 MHz. Perhaps it’s a relabeled ARM.
iSuppli said it believed the G1 was well above the industry average in terms of ease of use but still had a gap to close with the iPhone’s user interface.
New technology from a company called Sandbridge Technologies could help keep smartphone prices in check as carriers begin to move toward 4G wireless networks, reports C/Net.
On Monday, Sandbridge plans to announce that its new baseband processor for cell phones, called the SB3500, is now shipping to cell phone manufacturers throughout the world. This new processor, which has been in the works for several years, differs from other chips used in cell phones because it’s completely software-based and reprogrammable.
Because it’s software programmable, the phone makers themselves will be able to determine which technologies to support on the chip. This should help phone manufacturers reduce the number of chips needed in a phone, which will ultimately reduce hardware costs and technical complexity in the devices, says C/Net.
The HTC Max 4G is a mobile device that runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 software and carries a 5-megapixel camera for digital photos and a secondary camera for video calling. It works on GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless networks as well as Yota’s 2.5GHz-2.7GHz WiMax network. That’s Russia’s 802.16 WiMax network that – as of early October – covered central Moscow.
