Storm Costs More To Make Than The iPhone 3G
February 2, 2009
The BlackBerry Storm and the iPhone 3G are both priced at $199.99 but the Storm costs $28.56 more than the iPhone to produce according to the results from the market research firm iSuppli.
The Storm's materials and manufacturing costs total $202.89, this cost doesn't include other expenses such as royalties, licensing and software just to name a few. The iPhone 3G costs a total of $174.33 to produce but these results are from July of last year. The iPhone 3G has the advantage of being a second revision of the device creating lower component costs.
The Storm and iPhone are alike in many ways but it's the inclusion of a touchscreen, a BlackBerry first, that puts the Storm in the same league as the iPhone. The Storm's touchscreen doesn't include any multi-touch technology but it does include a haptic feedback feature, a simple clicking mechanism under the main screen that allows users to feel a click.
The Storm was also created for various phone carriers worldwide so it includes EvDO, CDMA 2000, GSM, WCDMA and HSDPA while the iPhone uses GSM with UMTS, HSDPA and EDGE adding even more components to the Storm's list. These are the two major component differences among the devices.
These extra features make the Storm come to a whopping total of 1,177 components compared to the iPhone's 1,116 components. It's as simple as it seems, more components equals more cost.
The BlackBerry Storm has been available since late November and Verizon has said that the Storm has now sold over 1 million units in two months. In comparison, the iPhone 3G sold 2.4 million devices in it's first three months.