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According to iSuppli the 16GB iPhone 3GS costs a total of $178.96 to build. That is broken further down, which you can see on the chart below, however in simple form that total is based off a bill of material cost of $172.46 with a manufacturing cost of $6.50.

Interesting to note is that this model (16GB iPhone 3GS) is only a few dollars more to build in comparison to the 8GB iPhone 3G which came in at $174.33. Additionally, these figures take the materials and manufacturing into the cost, however there is also other items such as packaging and shipping to the retail locations that can be factored into the cost of each iPhone.

Of course, in reality Apple could be spending a lot less to build each iPhone 3GS, because no matter what we see from iSuppli, they are most likely not privy to any special deals that Apple may receive for buying these materials in the bulk quantity the would require. Nonetheless, it is neat to see that the new model is just a few bucks more than the previous, even with the upgrades.

[iSuppli]