Teardown suggests that the Nexus 7 tablet's guts cost $152

A teardown of Google's Nexus 7 — along with an analysis of its components and some guesswork — revealed that the $199 device contains about $152 worth of parts.

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This estimate comes to us via the researchers at IHS, an organization that provides insight and analysis on all sorts of topics. These folks took an off-the-shelf Nexus 7— meaning that it's identical to one you could buy — and took it apart, piece by tiny little piece.

They calculated that an 8GB version of the device has a bill of materials (BOM) of $151.75 and that a 16GB version has a BOM of $159.25. Once manufacturing expenses are estimated and added, this puts the final costs for the two models at $159.25 and $166.75, respectively.

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There are other expenses — such as software, licensing, royalties and so on — to consider, of course. So once it's all said and done, Google will likely break even on the 8GB model and make a "modest profit" on the 16GB version, the folks at IHS say.

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