Teardown Finds iPhone 5 Costs Apple About the Same As Did 4S

Nerval's Lobster writes "A physical teardown of the iPhone 5 by IHS iSuppli reveals that Apple has managed to keep its materials and manufacturing costs roughly in line with that of the iPhone 4S. The firm estimated the Bill of Materials for the iPhone 5's low-end variant at $199.00, rising to $207.00 once manufacturing costs are entered into the equation. It tallied the BOM for the 32GB version at $209.00 (or $217 with manufacturing) and the 64GB one at $230.00 (rising slightly to $238 with those manufacturing costs). Compare that to the BOM for the iPhone 4S, which IHS iSuppli estimated at $188 for the 16GB version (rising to $196 with manufacturing costs added in), $207 for the 32GB version ($215 with manufacturing) and $245 for the 64GB version ($254 with manufacturing)." Reader redkemper writes with another kind of comparison of the newest iPhone to its predecessor: "Apple didn't spend too much time talking about the iSight camera at the iPhone 5s unveil event because it's mostly the same as the one found in the iPhone 4S. Thankfully, iMore grabbed an iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S and did a fantastic shoot-out between the two device's rear cameras. [The new camera] just barely edges out the iPhone 4S's year-old camera."

Moving to aluminum may have been a bad idea

[jmichaelg]

I read that when Jobs was testing the first iphone prototype, the screen was plastic because it was thought to resist fracturing when dropped. After a few times in his pocket getting scuffed up by his keys, he told the team to replace the plastic with glass which eventually led to Apple using Gorilla Glass. He didn't give a damn how expensive or inconvenient the transition was going to be, an easily scratched face wasn't going on the iphone. Though the backing was scratchable, it was made of stainless steel which meant minor scratches could be buffed out if the owner cared to.

Given Ifixit's 30 second test [youtube.com] showing how scuff-prone the new aluminum backing is, it's hard to imagine Jobs having greenlit this particular design choice.