In this press release, iSuppli has estimated the total cost of the hardware and assembly of the new 3G iPhone to be $173. This estimate is based on a virtual teardown of the device and an estimate of each individual component is taken into consideration. The new iPhone, despite having many technical advances compared to the original version, is estimated to be much cheaper than its predecessor. The director and principal analyst for iSuppli, Dr. Jagdish Rebello, said “The original 8Gbyte iPhone carried a cost of $226 after component price reductions, giving the new product a 23 percent hardware cost reduction due to component price declines.”

Each component has been itemized and given an estimated price. For instance the main application processor is estimated to be $13.50, while the GPS module is $3.60. They also estimate that other manufacturing costs equal about $9 per unit. The new 3G iPhone will sell for $199 for the 8 GB version, while the 16 GB version will be $299. However you must sign a new 2 year contract with AT&T to be able to purchase either version of the new 3G iPhone.

This story from Information Week says that all current iPhone users will be eligble for an upgrade to the new model for a subzidised price, but new users may be subject to evaluation before they can purchase and use the new iPhone. But current users will have to sign a new 2 year agreement and will have to pay more for the data plan and text messaging. For the same amount of text messages and data usage per month, customers will have to now pay an extra $15 per month.

In this Dallas News story, the author discusses the possibility of a flash plugin for the mobile Safari browser that runs on the iPhone and the iPod touch. Since the new iPhone will be much faster, it will be a much wanted feature to be able to view flash documents on the web. Many websites and web features, such as games and videos rely on the Adobe flash framework to run. Steve Jobs has announced that the desktop version is too slow for the mobile platform while the lite version of flash does not have enough features and will not run the majority of flash content that is available on the web.

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This Gizmodo Article analyzes one of the less publicized aspects of the three g iPhone launch is the fact that the AT&T plans have changed. Now it will cost $10 more per month for unlimited data access.