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To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (46686)	4/4/2011 3:40:23 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 68278

Feb. 10, 2011, 1:57 p.m. EST Apple cuts costs with new iPhone design Teardown finds bill of materials is 9% lower for Verizon iPhone Explore related topics Computer Hardware Computer Software Apple Inc Verizon Communications Inc Story Quotes Comments Screener (11) Share * Yahoo! Buzz * MySpace * del.icio.us * Reddit * LinkedIn * Fark * StumbleUpon * Newsvine \| Recommend (1) Print Email Alert By Dan Gallagher, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The new version of the iPhone 4 that went on sale at Verizon Wireless on Thursday has a modified interior design that could improve the profitability of the device, according to a new report. Apple Inc. /quotes/comstock/15!aapl/quotes/nls/aapl (AAPL 344.56, -3.95, -1.13%) made several design alterations to the interior of the product without changing the functionality or appearance, according to a teardown study by the market-research firm iSuppli, released Thursday. This new design reduces the estimated cost of materials for the product by around 9% from the previous model, the report said. The iPhone 4 went on sale at Verizon /quotes/comstock/13!vz/quotes/nls/vz (VZ 38.47, -0.07, -0.18%) on Thursday. The device is designed to work on the carrier’s CDMA network, so is different from the model sold for AT&T Inc. /quotes/comstock/13!t/quotes/nls/t (T 30.62, +0.01, +0.03%) since last summer. The version of Adobe Flash Player required to view this interactive has not been found. To enjoy our complete interactive experience, please download a free copy of the latest version of Adobe Flash Player here. Verizon iPhone: Where are the crowds? Apple's iPhone finally hits Verizon stores, but in many locations thin crowds greet the smartphone's arrival. Lauren Goode and Stacey Delo report. The new iPhone’s total bill of materials is $171.35 compared with $187.51, according to iSuppli estimates. Those estimates do not include other costs, such as software, royalties, licensing and payments to manufacturing firms. Analysts, however, estimate the iPhone to be one of Apple’s highest-margin products. The average selling price for the iPhone was $625 in the December quarter. “As we dig deeper into our teardown analysis, we’re certain that we will find a host of other tweaks all designed to improve quality, but keep costs on a steady path of decline,” iSuppli senior director Andrew Rassweiler said in the report. The most notable changes include the phone’s antenna, as well as the main chip set powering the device. Apple is using a baseband chip set from Qualcomm Inc. /quotes/comstock/15!qcom/quotes/nls/qcom (QCOM 54.47, -0.36, -0.66%) in place of a similar chip from Infineon Technologies AG /quotes/comstock/23z!ifx (XE:IFX 7.36, +0.01, +0.10%) in the prior model. The Qualcomm chip set allows the iPhone to go without a separate graphics processor from Broadcom Corp. /quotes/comstock/15*!brcm/quotes/nls/brcm (BRCM 38.36, -1.02, -2.59%) that was also in prior models. The device for Verizon also features a redesigned antenna array that separates the antenna for Bluetooth and WLAN networks. Apple saw a wave of negative publicity last year over reports that the iPhone 4’s external antenna was prone to dropping calls if users held the device in certain ways. Dan Gallagher is MarketWatch's technology editor, based in San Francisco.