Hasta La Gadget!

At CES this year, we saw a number of Phablets, or large-display smartphones, coming from Alcatel and Huawei in hopes to deliver their own device seeing how popular Samsung’s Galaxy Note series has been. If you aren’t a fan of Phablets, then you’re going to be super bummed in 2013 as research firm iSuppli is predicting they’ll be more popular this year.

According to iSuppli, Phablets are expected to reach over 60 million shipments this year, which is up from 25.6 million shipped last year. By 2016, iSuppli expects the Phablet market to reach approximately 146 million units shipped worldwide.

iSuppli’s director of small and medium displays Vinita Jakhanwal believes the change in Phablet popularity is due to our demand for better mobile experiences:

“The move to offer larger-display smartphones reflects the efforts of both device and panel makers to differentiate their products,” Vinita Jakhanwal, director of small and medium displays at IHS iSuppli, said in a statement. “With consumers demanding more lifelike viewing experiences, the trend to offer such devices makes perfect sense, especially considering the increase in rich content that is being made available on smartphones.”

If iSuppli’s predictions turn out to be true, we’re hoping we can expect the pants industry to work on longer pockets to help us carry around all of these Phablets around.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Microsoft’s HelpBridge App Is Here To Help When Disaster Strikes, T-Mobile Supports HSPA+ Nexus 7, Expands Nexus 4 Availability To Retail Stores,

The folks that see how inexpensive an item is to produce and feel that the manufacturer should have little to no profit over this cost are certainly not going to enjoy what they’re hearing from IHS iSuppli about Microsoft today, that’s for sure. With a a Bill of Materials (BOM) cost of $271 USD and a $13 USD manufacturing cost, the total cost of the Microsoft Surface RT with minimum 32GB NAND flash memory becomes $248 in all, this placing it well below retail price at $599. IHS iSuppli note that compared to the low-end iPad (that being the iPad 2 in this case), the Surface RT generates a greater profit margin in percentage terms and on a per-unit basis as well.

These same folks did a teardown of the iPad mini recently and found the total cost of manufacturing to be $188 USD. Compared to its $329 retail price (and we’re talking about lowest-end iPad mini models here), that’s $141 USD profit per unit. It should be noted that licensing and software additions are not figured into this price or any other price in this study as conducted by IHS iSuppli. The amount of money the iPad mini costs to manufacture is approximately 43% of its total retail price.

The amount of cash between the cost to manufacture the Microsoft Surface RT and its retail cost is $351, that being 70% of its retail cost – and a whopper of a margin. When you break down the costs that IHS iSuppli found in the Surface RT, you find that it’s the touchscreen display that takes up the major bulk of the cash at $101 USD. This is followed by the mechanical and electro-mechanical bits costing $35 in total and the memory (that being 2GB DDR3L + 32GB eMMc NAND Flash + DRAM) costing $34 USD.

The iPad 3rd gen (16GB) was also torn down by IHS iSuppli back a few months ago (the 4th gen not quite ready for analyzation yet), with a total BOM at $316 with a pricetag at $499 USD. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (16GB) was also torn down and found to carry a BOM of $260 USD (with that same $499 USD pricetag in stores.) It would appear that Microsoft truly has the margin in all cases – now we’ve got to see if they can keep that price up.

[via IHS iSuppli]

Microsoft Surface RT teardown shows giant retail profit margin is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

For the first time since the dot-com bust 11 years ago, PC shipments are expected to decline 1.2% from last year, with an anticipated drop from 2011′s 352.8 million units to 348.7 million units. PC sales have been lagging all year, with a recent study showing that out of the top four vendors, only Lenovo experienced an increase in sales. While disconcerting, the hope that back-to-school sales would boost the numbers, as is usually the case, kept everyone optimistic.

Earlier in 2012, as Intel showed off a variety of ultrabooks and the first glimpses of Windows 8 emerged at CES, the industry was hopeful that sales would increase as the year went on. Analysts believed that the innovation displayed would go on to drag lagging PC sales back up, and that all would be well. When the Q1 data came in and showed poor sales, nervousness arose, but optimism was still prevalent.

Now, as Q3 reports come in showing dismal sales and analysts anticipate the worst year of PC sales since 2001, many wonder what the future holds for the PC market. Windows 8 has the potential to boost PC sales, but few are willing to offer more than guarded speculation about how much of a boon the much-anticipated OS could be. Windows 8 will be available October 26th.

The reasons for lagging PC sales are two-fold. First and foremost, the economic downturn has caused many consumers to reevaluate whether computers – and gadgets in general – are within their budget, while many are electing to use their computers for longer durations before updating. The other issue, which could have lasting effects on the market, is the increased sale and proliferation of mobile gadgets. As smartphones and tablets become cheaper and more powerful, many are electing to eschew PCs, or to hold onto older hardware and fill the gaps with mobile gadgets.

[via iSuppli]

PC sales to decline in 2012 for the first time in 11 years is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The iPhone 5 features a number of hardware improvements over iPhones of the past, but how much are those improvements costing Apple? That’s what IHS iSuppli is determined to find out in its latest teardown, but this one is a little bit different than the teardowns were used to from IHS iSuppli. You see, the folks at IHS iSuppli haven’t gotten their hands on an iPhone 5 just yet, so this is a “virtual” teardown based on the specifications Apple has announced, combined with prior knowledge of Apple’s suppliers and manufacturing partners.

That means that this teardown is preliminary, and the results could change once IHS iSuppli gets to actually rip apart an iPhone 5. Still, this should do just fine for now, so let’s jump into it. IHS iSuppli says that the bill of materials for the base 16GB iPhone 5 model comes in at $199. With the price of manufacturing figured in – $8.00 – the cost to produce a 16GB iPhone 5 is bumped up to $207. The cost to produce a 32GB iPhone 5 (with manufacturing included) is $217 according to IHS iSuppli, while the cost to produce a 64GB iPhone 5 climbs up to $238.

Apple is offering the 16GB iPhone 5 for $199, the 32GB for $299, and the 64GB for $399, but you only get those prices if you sign a two-year contract. If you want to buy an iPhone 5 direct from Apple with no contract, the cost of the device jumps up considerably: $649 for the 16GB model, $749 for the 32GB model, and $849 for the 64GB one. Keep in mind that this is a preliminary teardown, but it gives us a good idea of what Apple’s manufacturing costs are nonetheless.

The most expensive part of the iPhone 5 is the in-cell touch screen, which costs Apple $44. That’s a little bit more than screens found on past iPhones, but traditionally, the screen has always been the most expensive part of the device. The new A6 processor has Apple paying out $17.50 a pop, a little bit more than the $15 Apple was paying for the A5. If all of this is accurate, then it looks like Apple is making a pretty healthy profit margin on the iPhone 5, but remember that IHS iSuppli’s numbers don’t take things like marketing and licensing into account. Even when all of that has been added up, though, Apple still stands to make a nice chunk of change on each iPhone 5 sold. Keep it tuned right here to SlashGear, and we’ll bring you the results of IHS iSuppli’s full teardown once they’re made available!

iPhone 5 16GB costs $207 to produce according to IHS iSuppli is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.