BW uncovers BlackBerry Bold teardown; hello profit margin

By on Oct 16, 2008 at 11:15 AM
General October 16, 2008

BusinessWeek has managed to get its hands on a teardown of the BlackBerry Bold and it looks like RIM has yet another reason to be upset about the ever-delayed AT&T release: huge margins. While the Bold is currently available in many markets around the world, RIM’s largest market, the US, is still in limbo. New information suggests that said delays may be costing RIM more money than we think. Self-proclaimed market intelligence firm iSuppli is known for pretty spot-on teardown analyses and after picking apart RIM’s Bold it came up with a number: $169.41. That number represents RIM’s estimated cost per unit from material sourcing to manufacturing to assembly. By comparison, iSuppli estimates Apple’s cost per unit of the iPhone 3G to be $174.33 which would make the likelihood of a competitive AT&T-subsidized price on the Bold very likely. Prior estimates had placed RIM’s cost on the Bold at a higher figure which lead to a bit of speculation that AT&T’s Bold pricing might come in a bit high for certain potential customers. Hopefully this new number is closer to reality and we can all hope for a contract price right around $200.

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  • b

    Bold Hopeful – Can you let us know if there are any revelations…. Whats the point of a release party if there is no release….

  • b

    Bold Hopeful- please let us know if there are any revelations… What good is a release party if there is no release!?!

  • DavidB

    Why would you comment morons think ATT/RIM need to sell the Bold for MORE than iPhone 3G if the parts cost is LESS?

    Oh, to the moron buying a “unlocked storm” to use on ATT network, yeah, let us know how THAT works for ya (no USA 3G frequencies in any known Storm).

  • AndGuz

    @Force, thanks for the correction.
    Kudos to Zach

  • Treo Pro

    Just buy a Treo Pro which is available NOW and works awesome and throw away that BB crap!

  • Bold Hopeful

    Well the Blackberry reps just gave me awkward looks when I asked them for release dates. But the phone is absolutely awesome, and to put icing on the cake, my wife won one! Of course they have to ship it though…

  • Crunch

    I have the Treo Pro, and yes, it does work very well. But it will be my back-up device when the Bold finally launches. Very disappointing not to see it to-day, 10/17, after the AT&T/RIM Launch Party DID go down last night in midtown New York.

    And whatever about its supposed “problems”.

    I polled Canadian users of the Bold who have had them since 8/20 (2 months, and counting!), and virtually all of them said (to the extent of 94%!!) that the ONLY problem they had with it on Rogers was the initial firmware of OS 4.6.

    They also reported that it didn’t take RIM more than a few DAYS to remedy that, and after that, the Blackberry BOLD has been working TERRIFIC. I wanted to know what was what after Orange pulled it.

    The latest firmware will be on the AT&T Bold’s, and if it isn’t, WE’LL LOAD IT ON THERE AND GO! So…WHERE IS IT??

    W E A L L W A N T I T, AT&T!!! Would be nice to see it at $199 w/ 2-yr. contract due to all the delays. I want to have my own launch party, damned! @#$%^&*() GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

  • Isole

    Thanks BG, I check your site often. Do you know where Verizon figures into all of this? Should I get an unlocked Bold as a verizon customer? They just started to sell them in NYC this week.

  • Crunch

    You cannot use an AT&T or T-Mobile (GSM/WCDMA technology) device on Verizon or Sprint (CDMA technology), and vice versa.

    Just FYI.

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