Jul 11, 2011 12:14 GMT  ·  By

The Apple iPhone is cheaper to make than an LTE-capable (Long Term Evolution) smartphone available in the United States on shelves at Verizon Wireless, a recent report from iSuppli shows.

The IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service notes that the HTC ThunderBolt smartphone came with a BOM (Bill Of Materials) of $262 at Verizon, far higher than that of other handsets.

At the same wireless carrier, the iPhone 4 model sports a BOM of $171.35, the research firm noted in a February report.

iSuppli notes that the ThunderBolt comes with the highest BOM any other smartphone they analyzed did, bringing it to the same line with media tablets.

However, it seems that the addition of support for 4G radios into the mix might make the next iPhone model as expensive to manufacture.

On ThunderBolt, the 4G chip added $39.75 to the manufacturing cost, and the CDMA iPhone 4 handset's BOM might grow by 23.2 percent to as much as $211.10 if support for the fourth-generation networks is included.

“It remains to be seen whether the next Apple iPhone set for introduction in September will support 4G LTE,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst for IHS.

“However, if it does, two things are clear. First, the iPhone’s minuscule printed circuit board (PCB) will have to grow in size in order to support the first-generation LTE baseband processor as well as all the supporting chipset.

“Second, the next iPhone’s BOM value certainly will increase substantially compared to the iPhone 4 if LTE is implemented in the same manner as in the HTC Thunderbolt.”

However, provided that Verizon start selling an LTE-capable Apple iPhone version, it might have it available at a similar price tag with the code division multiple access (CDMA) version of the iPhone 4 it already has in its offering, even if the manufacturing costs would grow.

The LTE-capable iPhone could arrive on shelves with support for both Verizon's and AT&T's 4G network, and might include a new chipset from Qualcomm, which would offer reduced size and cost when compared to ThunderBolt.

Dr. Jagdish Rebello, senior director and principal analyst, communications and consumer electronics, for his, notes that Apple might choose to make the next iPhone device a world phone from the start, with support for both CDMA2000-1x-EVDO and HSDPA standards packed inside.