A gutted Palm Pre reveals $170 worth of parts

Yesterday many people across the country eagerly waited in line to get their hands on the most anticipated handset of the year, the Palm Pre. While the overwhelming majority of people who took a Pre home with them are counting on it to be their reliable companion for the foreseeable future, the people at Rapid Repair were merely interested in taking it back to their offices and ripping it apart. So what did we learn other than the fact that disassembling a Pre is best done by people who really, really know what they’re doing? Pre components are worth about $170 — a massive leap above the iSuppli estimate of $138. In other words, it’s probably best to actually have a unit on hand before estimating its production cost. Just a thought.

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