14 DAY TRIAL // The iPhone has been taken to pieces this weekend for a detailed analysis of its components. iSuppli managed to find the main companies which account for the iPhone's design and performances due to specific parts in the handset.
The 8 GB version of Apple's phone has a total hardware BoM, which comes for the price of more than USD 250. Such devices have been each sold for the price of USD 600, which results in more than 50 percent of margin in excess.
The iPhone's semiconductor content has been provided by Infineon. This company is also well known for providing the same technology for Apple's iPod production. The serial display interface, however, has been added by National, although this company has never offered its technology for the iPod too.
Probably one of the most appreciated features about the iPhone is its display. Everybody has gone mad over its touch sensitive performances and the futuristic perspective on this technology is what managed to get fired up a lot of people. The key supplier for this seems to be Balda of Germany in association with TPK Holding of China.
In order to make this screen extremely thin and capable of responding to touch, several companies have contributed. Among these, there are Epson, Sharp and Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology.
You might not have guessed this, but Samsung also had its share of the iPhone building process. This company has provided the applications processor, which includes an ARM RISC core. Furthermore, Samsung has also brought the NAND flash memory and DRAM for the iPhone.
The iPhone has been sold in half of million units this weekend only. This is an impressive figure, especially when considering the fact that none of the buyers have had the chance of actually holding and testing such a device before they have made the purchase.