iSuppli: Kindle Has $185 In Parts

By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 4/23/2009

El Segundo, Calif. — Amazon.com’s new Kindle 2 e-book reader includes $185.49 in materials and manufacturing costs, according to a dissection by iSuppli.

The costs represent just more than 50 percent of the Kindle 2’s retail price of $359.

Not included in iSuppli’s tally are costs above and beyond material manufacturing, such as royalties and licensing fees, software loading and shipping.

iSuppli estimated that $60, or 42 percent, of the Kindle’s material costs are devoted to its e-ink display module.

Second in cost is the Kindle’s wireless broadband module from Novatel Wireless. Priced at $39.50, the module accounts for 27 percent of the Kindle’s materials cost. The module allows the Kindle to support on demand, over-the-air purchasing of eBooks via the CDMA2000 1X EV-DO Rev A air standard modem.

Other components include a Qualcomm MSM6801A single-chip baseband processor, priced at $13.18, and a Freescale Semiconductor MCIMX31LVKN5C multimedia application processor, priced at $8.64, iSuppli estimated.