The IHS-owned technology research company iSuppli has subjected the newly released Nintendo 3DS to a full tear-down, and found that the total production cost of the handheld amounts to a total of $100.71. The Nintendo 3DS was launched in North America earlier this week, and is being sold at a suggested retail price of around $250.
The full report by iSuppli indicates that the stereoscopic 3D screen and the second touch-sensitive screen are the most expensive components included in the device. Together, these components, which are produced by Sharp, cost $33.80.
After pulling apart the new handheld, the IHS senior director was able to explain how the 3D capabilities of the 3DS actually work:
“[… ] on one side of the glass is a conventional color TFT element, while the other side was a monochrome LCD element. The monochrome LCD parallax barrier in the back acts as a gate that allows light to either pass through certain areas of the screen or not. Switching this gate in the right patterns at high frequency helps create the illusion of 3-D depth.”
Nintendo has always been really good at making a profit off of their consoles while the competition has typically sold theirs as a loss. At that price though, they would have been fine with a $200 price tag.
The problem with that is that this study doesn’t account for shipping of the products (to and from the facilities), manufacturing, R&R, marketing, and retailers getting a profit from the system. They might have been fine, but their profit margin would have been considerably smaller.