Torch 9800 Materials Cost $171.05, iSuppli Shows

The new BlackBerry Torch 9800 from Research In Motion is said to carry a Bill of Materials (BOM) of $171.05, a recent report from iSuppli unveils. At the same time, the research firm notes that the device would cost $12 to manufacture, which increases the manufacturing and BOM cost of the new RIM device to $183.05.

When adding in an estimated manufacturing cost of $12, the Torch’s combined production and BOM cost reach up to $183.05.

“On the outside, the Torch delivers a rich feature set, with three User Interfaces (UIs): a capacitive touch screen, an optical track pad and the first slider QWERTY keyboard found in a BlackBerry,” said Andrew Rassweiler, principal analyst, teardown services manager, for iSuppli.

“On the inside, the Torch’s electronic design heavily leverages subsystems used in previous members of the BlackBerry smart phone line, specifically the Storm2 and the Bold 9700,” he added.

According to the research firm, the most expensive part of Torch is its LCD and touch screen display module section, which goes for $34.85 and represents 20.4 percent of the product’s BOM.

The next item on the list is the memory subsystem, which is priced at $34.25, and which accounts for 20 percent of the Bill of Materials.

Next on the list we can count the printed circuit boards and the enclosure plastics and metals, which represent 13.7 percent of the Torch’s BOM, being priced at $23.35.

According to iSuppli, the new smartphone from RIM comes with a nice range of novelties for the BlackBerry series, including the sliding form factor, as well as the BlackBerry OS 6, in addition to features like the Social Feeds, Universal Search and a faster WebKit-based browser.

Even so, the new mobile phone reportedly failed to impress users at launch, and only a small number of devices were sold during the first few days of availability. However, things might chance in the future, as the Torch is available only on AT&T's airwaves.