The Numbers Inside the New iPod

BusinessWeek writes about iSuppli's latest teardown of the new video iPod, which reveals Apple is working with a new supplieri, chipmaker Broadcom, for handling video.

According to iSuppli analyst Chris Crotty, he estimated the BOM costs for the latest iPod at $151 for the 30 GB version, which retails at $299. Crotty said, "This is in line with what we have seen with other iPod products from Apple."

Crotty noted that the win is new for Broadcom, but is by no means permanent since current Apple audio chip supplier PortalPlayer offers video chips too. Crotty commented, "In this case, the Broadcom chip is just for video and the PortalPlayer chip is just for audio," "Right now, Apple is keeping the functions separate. Over time, you'll see more chips that do everything. But now it's probably more cost effective for Apple to do it with separate chips."

Crotty predicted the market for chips devoted to the portable media player product category -- in which video-ready players will become increasingly common -- may reach $6.4 billion by 2009. On the topic of displays, Crotty remarked Apple might have some upcoming problems. "We know that Apple has only one source for the display of this iPod. And we also know that it is supply-constrained," he said.