Samsung Is Serious About Staying Ahead of Apple

The rise in material cost of the new Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone compared to its predecessor shows that the company is stepping up its game

Author:: TheStreet Staff
Publish date:: Apr 24, 2017 7:53 AM EDT

The Galaxy S8 costs Samsung (SSNLF) $301.60 in materials and $5.90 in basic manufacturing costs, which is $43.34 higher than the total cost of last year's Galaxy S7, according to research done by IHS Markit. The company also estimated that the Galaxy's subsidized price has risen to $720 for the S8 from the $650 price range of previous S series phones.

"The higher total BOM [bill of materials] costs for the Galaxy S8 seem to be part of a trend that reflects something of an arms race in features among Apple, Samsung and other phone manufacturers, as they all try to ad new and distinguishing hardware features," said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of cost benchmarking services for IHS Markit.

This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.