Early adopters that picked up the Verizon HTC Thunderbolt may have done so because this smartphone was the first to support 4G LTE. The advantage of this was improved data transfer speeds and at the time that this phone came out, this technology was still in its infancy and may have had an impact on the cost of this handset.
In fact, according to iSuppli, after tearing down this phone and seeing its innards, the company believes that this may have been one of the most expensive phones to be made. A big part of the cost of the HTC Thunderbolt was the 4G LTE wireless connectivity which added $39.75 to the cost or sizeable bill of materials (BOM). The total BOM for this phone came in at $262 which is the greatest BOM for a phone that this company has ever torn down. To put this BOM into perspective, the value of it puts it on par with some of the media tablets that are out there.
So, what makes the 4G LTE wireless standard so expensive? Well, for starters, the biggest factor to the cost is that this technology is not integrated into the circuit board. Not only does this add to the cost, but it makes the device bulky and we have seen this with a few handsets including the HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Droid Charge and the LG Revolution.
Some time back, Apple was asked about a 4G iPhone but the company felt that this was not on the immediate horizon due to the impact this would have on the price and form factor.
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