July 9 - 11:05am EDT   The economic crunch is making a major impact on the viability of solid-state drives in notebooks, according to new research from iSuppli. As prices for the NAND flash memory that form the heart of these drives have in some cases more than doubled -- 128 percent for a 2GB chip -- the costs for the SSDs themselves have gone up proportionately, making it difficult or occasionally impossible to offer an SSD option in a given notebook. The jump is the result of a known shortage triggered by the economy, as companies producing memory deliberately cut production to raise prices and save money. [full story]

June 24 - 7:40am EDT   Apple's newest iPhone actually costs slightly more to make than the older version in spite of the more modest update, iSuppli says. The iPhone 3GS' total bill of materials amounts to $178.96 for a 16GB model, or slightly more than the previous $174.33 of the 8GB iPhone 3G. Some of the cost difference is attributed to recent rises in the prices of NAND flash memory; although 16GB costs less to make than it did a year earlier, a small rebound due to economy-driven supply cutbacks means Apple has had to absorb some costs to double its storage. [full story]

June 10 - 11:15am EDT   The Palm Pre may cost significantly more to make than first anticipated and has surprising similarity to the iPhone's supply chain as it's existed in the past, according to a post-launch cost breakdown by iSuppli. Originally thought to cost $138 in raw manufacturing and parts, the smartphone is now estimated to cost at least $140 and as much as $160. Much of the price is attached to the 3.1-inch Sony multi-touch LCD, which with its Cypress controller costs about $40.60. [full story]

May 1 - 4:00pm EDT   Despite currently strong interest, the netbook industry is likely to cool off sharply in as little as a year, an iSuppli estimate said today. The research predicts that netbook shipments are likely to surge 68.5 percent in 2009 versus the year earlier but that this growth rate will be cut almost in half to 39.6 percent in 2010 and by two thirds to 13.1 percent in 2013. The growth will still be relatively strong as each figure builds on the earlier year's numbers, according to principal PC analyst Matthew Wilkins, but shows the rapid expansion of 2008 quickly tapering off. [full story]

April 29 - 8:10am EDT   The Palm Pre will cost substantially less to build than the iPhone 3G did when it was new, according to a pre-launch cost breakdown by iSuppli. While the company doesn't have full access to the parts Palm is using, its estimates put the pure cost of assembling the first webOS phone at $138. The multi-touch screen is expected to be the most expensive part at $39.51, while the phone's Texas Instruments OMAP processor -- touted as significantly faster than the iPhone's Samsung chip -- costs just $11. [full story]

April 22 - 3:20pm EDT   An iSuppli cost breakdown today of Amazon's Kindle 2 reveals that the e-book reader ultimately costs a relatively small amount more to build than an iPhone, or roughly half the actual $359 price. Where an iPhone 3G cost $174.33 to make when new, the Kindle 2 costs $185.49 after factoring in both the raw parts as well as assembly. The most expensive component is E-Ink's 6-inch digital paper display, which by itself costs $60; the screen is needed both to provide a natural feel but to let users read even when the unit is otherwise powered down. [full story]

November 11 - 12:20pm EST   T-Mobile's G1 phone costs the carrier and its build partner HTC significantly less to make than its Apple rival, researchers at iSuppli conclude. The firm estimates that the raw material cost of a G1 amounts to $143.89 and that the single largest cost is the $28.49 baseband hardware, which represents both the main CPU as well as the cellular link. The 3.2-inch touchscreen is next at $19.67 while the camera ($12.13) and the RF/power amp for the 3G connection ($9.84) stand at third and fourth place respectively. [full story]

July 15 - 7:40pm EDT   Despite the iPhone 3G's more modern wireless communication standards, arguably thinner design, and inclusion of GPS, its overall cost of manufacture has dropped just over $50, according to iSuppli. The company's Teardown Analysis Service reveals that the device is geared towards cutting costs, while increasing worldwide presence, rather than simply filling the iPhone with the latest and greatest. The iPhone 3G is assessed at $174.33, almost exactly the predicted $173 issued in June. [full story]

June 27 - 4:10pm EDT   Despite tough overall economic conditions, the market for personal computers remained strong in the first quarter of 2008 according to iSuppli. Global PC unit shipments rose to 69.9 million units in the first quarter, up 12.1 percent from 62.4 million in the first quarter of 2007. Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Acer Inc. retained the top-three rankings with no change from the previous quarter. HP boosted first-quarter global PC shipments by 23 percent over the same quarter in 2007, to reach 13.2 million units. Dell in the first quarter of 2008 expanded its market share position by half a percentage point compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, at 15.4 percent, with ... [full story]

April 7 - 10:45am EDT   iSuppli today said it predicts a major drop in orders for NAND flash memory largely due to Apple. While the research group originally expected the value of orders to climb by 27 percent to peak at nearly $17.9 billion, it now estimates that growth to reach just $15.2 billion, or to grow by just a third at 9 percent. The overall drop is credited to reduced spending by US buyers unable to afford portable media players and other consumer electronics through defaults on subprime mortgages and the ripple effect it creates elsewhere in the world. [full story]

January 29 - 9:20am EST   Apple is currently making little to no money on each Apple TV sold, a teardown analysis suggests. The research firm iSuppli has conducted a estimate of the manufacturing costs of the new 40 and 160GB set-tops, and found that after Apple's $70 price cut, the 40GB Apple TV has a margin of just 10 percent, while the 160GB version has a more reasonable 29 percent. Apple normally has product margins closer to 50 percent, and even this does not account for secondary costs such as marketing or distribution. [full story]

January 3 - 3:40pm EST   This year will be the first that the world's dedicated portable media player market will show clear signs of having neared or reached its peak, according to a new study published by iSuppli. While growth in 2007 was already cooling off compared to the rush of early years, having edged 8 percent ahead year-over-year, 2008 will represent considerably slowed results. Predictions have sales income expanding by only 3.5 percent; the slowdown is expected to continue until at least 2011, where growth may be virtually non-existent at just 1 percent higher than it is today, according to the report. At least some of this can be attributed to lower-cost music players, which ... [full story]