Posted: November 1, 2017, Updated: November 6, 2017
Contributing Authors: Al Cowsky
While Apple and Samsung have been engaged in a tug-of-war for the title of top-selling smartphone provider over the past couple of years, China’s dominant OEM - Huawei - has been quietly gaining traction globally with their P- and Mate-series offerings.
TechInsights has conducted in-depth an analysis of each provider’s most recent contenders:
Our reports provide our complete details of each phone, and our various tools provide a number of ways to slice and dice and compare data about them; here, we are providing a summary cost comparison of the three phones.
Cost Comparison Observations
| Huawei Mate 10 |
Apple iPhone 8 A1905 |
Samsung Galaxy S8 SM-G950F |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Teardown Date | October 2017 | September 2017 | April 2017 |
| Applications Processor | – | $52.00 | – |
| Applications/Baseband Processor | $52.50 | – | $71.00 |
| Baseband Processor | – | $14.50 | – |
| Battery | $6.00 | $4.00 | $4.00 |
| Camera / Image | $35.00 | $20.00 | $25.50 |
| Connectivity | $6.50 | $11.50 | $10.50 |
| Display / Touchscreen | $31.00 | $36.00 | $76.50 |
| Memory: Non-Volatile | $24.00 | $20.50 | $22.00 |
| Memory: Volatile | $31.50 | $16.50 | $18.00 |
| Mixed Signal | $0.50 | $0.50 | – |
| Non-Electronics | $17.00 | $21.50 | $21.50 |
| Other | $17.50 | $15.50 | $15.50 |
| Power Management / Audio | $10.50 | $12.00 | $8.50 |
| RF Component | $20.50 | $24.50 | $18.50 |
| Sensor | $5.50 | $4.00 | $4.50 |
| Substrates | $9.50 | $9.00 | $11.00 |
| Supporting Materials | $8.00 | $7.00 | $7.50 |
| Final Assembly & Test | $14.50 | $16.00 | $12.00 |
| Total | $290.00 | $285.00 | $326.50 |
* Costing note: All cost estimates provided here are compiled using information available to us at the time of the initial teardown. Some assumptions have been made where concrete data is not yet available. We will continue to gather and refine this costing data throughout our on-going deep-dive teardown process and analysis. While we do not expect drastic cost changes, we do expect some adjustments.
Application Processors
The Applications Processors of the phones appear to be categorized inconsistently in the table above; this is intentional, based on the different components that combine to provide the functionality.
| Phone | Applications Processor Components | Cost of Components |
|---|---|---|
| Huawei Mate 10 | Kirin 970 | $51.70 |
| Apple iPhone 8 | A11 Intel PMB9948P LTE modem |
$51.96 $14.26 |
| Samsung Galaxy S8 | Samsung Exynos 9 (Exynos 8895) | $71.00 |
Street price compared to manufacturing cost
Apple and Huawei have very similar parts costing models, whereas the estimated parts cost of the Samsung is significantly higher.
| Huawei Mate 10 |
Apple iPhone 8 (A1905) |
Samsung Galaxy S8 (SM-G950F) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Street Price | $710.00 | $699.00 | $725.00 |
| Parts Cost | $290.00 | $285.00 | $326.50 |
| Representative Cost of Parts | 40.8% | $40.8% | 45.0% |
