The T-Mobile G1 smart phone, the first wireless handset to be based on Google Inc.’s Android mobile operating system, carries a Bill-of-Materials (BOM) cost of $143.89, according to a virtual teardown conducted by iSuppli Corp.

Part of the new generation of so-called “iPhone killers,” the HTC Corp.-manufactured G1 combines voice communications with a host of other capabilities, including e-mail, Internet access, camera and music playback. Along with many fellow phones of its generation, the G1 includes a high-resolution display and a QWERTY keyboard. Like the iPhone, the G1 includes a touch-screen interface.

“The G1’s differentiation resides in its use of the Android operating system, which has won praise for its ease of use, but whose major advantage is its integration with Google Internet services and its capability to accommodate the flood of free applications that are becoming available,” said Tina Teng, senior analyst, wireless communications, for iSuppli.

Inside the G1
iSuppli determined the $143.89 BOM based on information from its Mobile Handset Cost Model (MHCM), which provides detailed analysis of present and future expenses to build mobile phones with any possible feature set. This estimate includes only the component and material costs for the G1, and doesn’t account for other expenses including software, research and development, manufacturing and accessories. iSuppli hasn’t yet conducted an actual physical teardown of the G1.

The most costly segment of the G1 is the baseband, at $28.49, or 19.8 percent of the G1’s total BOM. Similar to other recent handsets from various brands examined by iSuppli, the baseband employs a combination of an ARM11 microprocessor for multimedia applications and an ARM7 core for modem functions.

The next most costly section of the G1 is the display, at $19.67, or 13.7 percent of the BOM. The G1’s display is a 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with HVGA resolution, at 320 by 480 pixels. The display uses projective touch-screen technology.

The camera represents the next most expensive segment, at $12.13, or 8.4 percent of total BOM costs. The camera has a 3 megapixel resolution and an autofocus feature.
The fourth most expensive segment is the Radio Frequency (RF)/Power Amplifier (PA) portion, which costs $9.84, representing 6.8 percent of the total BOM. This section supports a high-speed 3.5G network connection using the HSDPA air standard.

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