BlackBerry Storm Costs More to Make Than iPhone 3G & Roams More

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StormiPhone.jpg

The BlackBerry Storm 9530 has a combined materials and manufacturing cost of $202.89, according to iSuppli.

The
BlackBerry Storm matches up with the iPhone 3G very well in terms of attributes
and functionality. Both phones combine wireless voice communications
with a range of other convergence features, including Internet access,
e-mail, built-in GPS, messaging and an integrated camera.

The BlackBerry
Storm features a color TFT-LCD display that is 3.25-inches in the
diagonal dimension, with 65,000 colors and a 480 by 360 pixel
resolution.  The BlackBerry Storm lacks the mutli-touch of the iPhone.

The BlackBerry
Storm is capable of roaming with more operators
globally than the iPhone due to its support for the EvDO air standard,
along with CDMA 2000, GSM, WCDMA and HSDPA. This allows Verizon's Storm
users to roam around the world without having to rent a separate
device, depending on operator restrictions.

The BlackBerry
Storm, when compared with the Apple iPhone 3G, is marginally more expensive and complex in terms of sheer component count.

iSuppli in July issued a preliminary estimate of $174.33 for initial production costs for the 8Gbyte iPhone 3G,
$28.56 less than the Storm. The Storm's total component count is 1,177,
of which 151 are mechanical in nature. The iPhone 3G includes 1,116
components.

"The higher cost and component cost of the Storm
is to be expected, given its support for both 3GPP- and 3GPP2-based
technologies," Rassweiler said.

The
use of the Qualcomm MSM7600 baseband processor represents the first
time iSuppli's Teardown Analysis Service has detected a part from this
manufacturer in a RIM product. The Qualcomm part not only provides support for the EvDO air standard,
making it a more of a worldwide phone, but it also eliminates the need
for multiple basebands and radio frequency chains, saving some cost.

Other component supplier winners in the Storm include:

  • Synaptics Inc., which contributed a $15.50 capacitive touchscreen overlay.
  • SanDisk Corp., which provided an 8Gbyte MicroSD memory card priced at $11.50. 
  • Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which supplied a $7.50
    Multichip Package (MCP) containing 8Gbytes of Multi-Level Cell (MLC)
    memory.

Go to BlackBerry Storm Apps and Accessories Page.

BlackBerry Storm News Page

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