Gadget Chain Blog

At first glance, Apple's iPod Touch looks almost exactly like its sibling the iPhone. It sports the same distinctive touch screen, plays movies and music in much the same way, and can also use wireless Internet connections for surfing the Web. All it really lacks is the ability to call another person.

But according to a teardown analysis conducted by market-research firm iSuppli, the Touch isn't just a stripped-down iPhone, but rather it has some unique design traits of its own. ISuppli pegs Apple's (AAPL) total cost of components on the 8GB version of the Touch at $147, or about 49% of the $299 retail price on the device. This would follow the pattern of other devices in Apple's iPod family that generally carry material costs that amount to about half, give or take a few percentage points, of the retail price.