G1 Phone Cheaper To Build Than iPhone; Not By Much
Just reading over at CNN Money that the G1 (Google’s first Android operating system based phone) is 10% cheaper to make than the untouchable iPhone according to “iSuppli research group.” The G1 costs around $144 worth of materials while the iPhone costs around $160. Mind you these costs do not include things such as software development, research and development, etc. It only includes the core hardware.
From looking at this data I would think (and hope) that they would make the G1 a little cheaper.
The reasoning behind this is that the iPhone is the show stopper; everyone is scrambling to beat this phone and they just can’t do it. It has media hype, an “i” in front of it, and it truly is a ground breaking device. Everyone and their mother wants this phone. I saw some middle aged woman in Wal-Mart poking at her iPhone the other day and I live in Meadville, Pa. If the iPhone is taking over here, it’s taking over everywhere. Even the Motorola RAZR has been trampled by the iPhone and the RAZR isn’t even a smartpone. The only way for cell manufacturers to combat this is make the sweetest phones that they can and drop the prices significantly. 
Not everyone can afford an iPhone (I sure cannot while in school) but most everyone wants the ability to do the things the iPhone can do like internet, email, music, games, calls, texts, MMS (oh wait, the iPhone can’t do that), and the like. Plus they want a phone that will copy and paste (seriously, Apple, get it together!). The only thing stopping myself and many others is the hardware and plan prices. It’s just too much and even I, the tech geek that I am, cannot justify it (although I do dream of it).
So, cell phone manufacturers, listen! Start building super sweet devices that can do all of the above, including copy and paste, put a good operating system on it like Android a year from now, and give it to me for free with a $60 - $80 plan. Is this really too much to ask for? If it is then I’ll pay $99.99 for the phone with a $99.99 mail-in-rebate that will take 6 months to get, capiche?
Leave a Reply