The iPhone 3G cost Vs the BlackBerry Storm cost

An article published last week compared the materials and manufacturing cost of the new RIM Blackberry mobile (Storm) with those of the iPhone 3G
The article claimed that the materials and manufacturing cost of the BlackBerry Storm is 203$, and the materials and manufacturing cost of the iPhone 3G is 174$
Does it mean that the Storm is more expensive for RIM than the iPhone is for Apple?
Not necessarily.
Let's take for example the Selling and marketing expenses of the iPhone: Is it possible to compare the massive branding, pre-sale and marketing expenses of the iPhone with the same expenses of the BlackBerry?
Visit an Apple store and take note of the iPhone's massive branding investment.
R&D expenses - The development of the iPhone began with Apple CEO Steve Jobs' direction that Apple engineers investigate touchscreens.
Apple created the device at a development cost of US$150 million over thirty months.
Apple rejected the "design by committee" approach that had yielded the Motorola ROKR E1, a largely unsuccessful collaboration with Motorola. Instead, Cingular gave Apple the liberty to develop the iPhone's hardware and software in-house. Numerous codenames and even fake prototypes were devised to keep the project secret.
This is only the investment on the first iPhone: Did RIM invest that much on the BlackBerry?
Logistics & supply chain expenses:Apple released the iPhone 3G in 70 countries. That means that Apple has to ship, supply and manage an inventory of phones in each of those locations






The table above describes the Selling/General/Admin & R&D expenses of Apple & Rim over twelve months.

Not all these figures have to belong to the iPhone/ BlackBerry, but we may safely assume that at least 30 % of those expenses have to be allocated to the iPhone/ BlackBerry


Summary:It is not easy to allocate the expenses of Apple and Rim to the iPhone/Storm. Nevertheless, it is possible to assume that the iPhone total cost is higher then the Storm cost.In order to get a final answer about the life cycle costing, it is necessary to perform Activity based costing (ABC) analysis at Apple & Rim.