If you want to find out if you're getting your money's worth after purchasing your new iPhone 3G, you can check out the comprehensive teardown analysis of the latest iPhone model made by researching firm iSuppli. The breakdown of the components and manufacturing costs amount to a mere US$ 174.33, which is less than what it took to build the previous model.

The estimate gives Apple somewhere around US$ 53 in savings compared to the production of the original iPhone, despite the inclusion of the new chipset designed for its 3G and GPS features. The lesser costs was a deliberate move made by Apple to spread out as much of the market share as it can in a short amount of time.

Principal analyst Andrew Rassweller explained Apple's new cost-effective plan for the iPhone 3G by saying:

iSuppli believes Apple aimed for a more cost-effective design for the 3G iPhone compared to the 2G, in order to lower the retail price, which will allow the company to seed adoption and to capture maximum market share now—while the company still has buzz and a perceived differentiation relative to its competitors.

Apple has also done some extensive improvements to make sure the iPhone 3G has greater compatibility with non-US networks. In particular, the Infineon chipset supports WCDMA phone networks used in Japan and Korea, extending the new iPhone's functionality beyond the original one.

You can check out the other technical details of the teardown analysis on the iSuppli website, accessible through the Via link below.