BlackBerry Torch carries a $171.05 Bill of Materials

The Torch has three User Interfaces on the outside:  a touch screen, an optical track pad and the first slider keyboard from BlackBerry. On the inside, the subsystems are similar to those used in the Storm2 and Bold 9700, but they enhanced the feature set to match competitors such as the iPhone (according to Andrew Rassweiler, principal analyst, teardown services manger for iSuppli).

Other brand new features that Torch delivers that no other Blackberry has are:

–         Newly rewritten BlackBerry OS 6

–         Social Feeds, Universal Search and a faster WebKit-based browser

–         Contains a GPS Integrated Circuit (IC) from CSR plc (which according to iSuppli is the first time their have ever seen this chip in a product teardown)

In addition to these new features the Torch’s Radio Frequency (RF), power amplifier and power management subsystems are very similar to those of the Bold 9700. The size of the Torch’s display is a similar size and also has the same Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometer in the Storm2 9550. It also has Texas Instruments Inc’s WL1271X WLAN/BlueTooth IC.

According to iSuppli, when adding in an estimated manufacturing cost of $12, the combined production and BOM cost amounts to $183.05. Please see the attached photo of how the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is broken down by subsystem. (Note the teardown does not take into account other expenses such as software, licensing and royalties.)

Cost Breakdown

The most expensive piece of the Torch is the LCD and touch screen display module section at $34.85 (or 20.4% of the BOM), according to iSuppli. This display is a 3.2 inch diagonal TFT LCD with a 480 x 360 pixel resolution. The screen uses capacitive technology and includes a Synaptics Inc. controller IC.

Second to the LCD is the memory subsystem at $34.25 (or 20% of the BOM). It includes a Samsung 4GB eMMC NAND flash memory device, an 8GB NAND flash and a 4GB Mobile Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM. The removable memory card is a SanDisk 4GB Micro SD.

The rest of the Torch (the printed circuit boards, the enclosure plastics and metals) came in third at a cost of $23.35 (or 13.7% of the BOM).

Next is the applications processor/baseband section at $15 (or 8.8% of the BOM). It is dominated by the communications processor, which features an integrated baseband from Marvell Technology Group Ltd.

In fifth is the RF transceiver and power amplifier section at $13.90 (or 8.1% of the BOM). It features the Infineon Technologies AG PMB5701 tri-band RF transceiver, the Renesas Electronics Corp R2A60177BG quad-band RF transceiver and its RPF59001B power amplifier module.

The sixth at $12.40 (or 7.2% of the BOM) is the user interface electronics subsection. It includes a STMicroelectronics NV STV0987 video/image processor, the Texas Instruments Inc TLV320AIC36IZQERaudio codex, CrucialTec Co Ltd optical assembly and the Analog Devices 3-axis accelerometer.

The Bluetooth/WLAN/GPS area comes up at a price of $10.60 (or 6.2% of the BOM), which includes the Texas Instruments WL1271A single-chip Bluetooth/WLAN/FM transmitter/receiver and the CSR GSD4t-9800 GPS receiver.

Finally is the power management section at $4.90 (or 2.9% of the BOM), which includes the Texas Instruments TPS65856 power management IC.

ISUPPLI

www.isuppli.com

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