Virtual Teardown Shows Apple iPad Tablet Costs $399

Now that we have more details of the Apple iPad out in the wild, we will be proceeding to a virtual teardown à la iSuppli, using data available from the analyst firm; for that, we will use the teardown they did of the iPhone 3GS as a benchmark.

Back in June 2009, iSuppli said that the iPhone bill of manufacture (BoM) and manufacturing cost were a shade under $179 which left it with a very tidy profit.

We have managed to update a few details based on publicly available data. Obviously there is bound to be some significant discrepancies especially when it comes to the price of the screen which is a big unknown. The analysis is for the 16GB version without WiFi.

By our estimate, the display module, a 9.7-inch LED-backlit model with a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels and IPS technology, is just under 8x the size of the iPhone 3GS.

Three factors will influence the price; (a) demand (b) yields and (c) technology used. For the sake of clarity, we'll assume that the screen is 8x the price of the 3.5-inch iPhone 3GS; that's $154.

The other major component price wise is the touch screen assembly which is likely to cost around $100 because Apple has chosen to put more than 1000 captors on the screen - that's roughly 3 sensors per square millimeters (or 22 sensors per square inch).

The 16GB memory (MLC Flash 16Gb 2048Mx8) costs $32.80 as of today (Contract price) although Apple would certainly get a significant discount.