BlackBerry Bold costs $169 to be produced, Best Buy sells it for $660

AT&T’s BlackBerry Bold can now be bought free of contract, from Best Buy, for $659.99. This must be great news for lots of users in the US who might not want to wait until November 4, when AT&T will begin to sell RIM’s new smartphone on contract.

A question rises, though: is BlackBerry Bold worth $659.99?

Compared to other smartphones currently on the market, the answer seems to be “yes”. Especially since the Bold is packed with lots and lots of features, some of them included for the first time in a BlackBerry handset.  

Still, according to iSuppli, which made a teardown analysis of the smartphone, the cost of producing one BlackBerry Bold device is of $169.41. This includes the Bill of Materials (BOM) cost, which is of $158.16, and the manufacturing cost of only $11.25.

 

iSuppli says that the most expensive “part” of the Bold is its 624MHz Marvell 88CP930M-BGR1 processor, which costs $34.34. Also, the smartphone’s 2.65-inch display, made by Samsung, costs $16, while the Texas Instruments WLAN Wi-Fi chip is valued at $4.84.     

Of course, RIM won’t get the whole difference (of around $490) between the production cost ($169.41) and the retail price ($659.99) of BlackBerry Bold. Still, the Canadian company will surely make big profits thanks to the Bold.

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Posted on 28 Oct 08 - Filed in Blackberry, Wireless - Comments - Written by ilinca

  • Ananda
    One of the main costs of a mobile phone is the software cost. The third parties also charge money for applications like messaging Browser navigation etc.

    There are also other cost involved for margins for retailer and whole salers.

    The engineers working on making it come true is another additional cost. The cost of building is not equal to the sum of cost of brick, cement and paint cost.. But also the architect, labor and other costs.
  • Sure, there are other costs besides the production ones.

    That's why I said "Of course, RIM won’t get the whole difference between the production cost and the retail price" :)
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