This came as a little surprise, but then its over 6 months since the GSM version of the iPhone 4 shipped. According to iSuppli, the CDMA iPhone 4 made for Verizon costs $16 lesser to manufacture than the GSM variant seen with AT&T. The CDMA iPhone 4’s cost is estimated at $171.35, whereas the GSM iPhone 4 bill of materials adds up to $187.51.
There are some design changes seen in the internal as well. This helps the reception and also demonstrates that Apple isn’t just recycling the GSM design to become a CDMA version. Like “shrinking of the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo module”.
“Apple has decided to isolate the Bluetooth/WLAN antenna from the enclosure/antenna assembly,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst, competitive analysis at IHS. “This design change leaves the top enclosure antenna segment to serve primarily as the GPS antenna and probably also as a CDMA diversity receive antenna. The use of antenna diversity is significant because this scheme improves signal reception performance.” – iSuppli