A new report from Japan today claims to reveal the bill of materials for both Google’s Pixel 9 Pro And Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro. The BOM is essentially an estimate of how much the parts that make up the smartphones cost – this obviously completely excludes R&D and marketing costs, it’s important to keep in mind.
If this report is accurate (and it’s not a given because this isn’t publicly available information), then it appears that Google’s Pixel 9 Pro is much cheaper to make (looking at parts costs) than the iPhone 16 Pro. The Pixel’s BOM comes in at $406, while the iPhone’s is reportedly $568.
Google Pixel 9 Pro (left) vs iPhone 16 Pro (right) bill of materials
So the BOM of the Pixel 9 Pro is 11% less than that of the Pixel 9 Pro Pixel 8 Pro last year, but this is a bad comparison considering the successor to the Pixel 8 Pro is the Pixel 9 Pro XL. The Pixel 9 Pro is simply smaller, which means it has a smaller screen and a smaller battery – both presumably cheaper than larger ones, so that could be where the drop in BOM costs come from.
On the other hand, the iPhone 16 Pro’s BOM is 6% higher than its predecessor‘That was last year. The iPhone chipset costs an estimated $135, the display costs $110, and the camera components total $91. The Pixel’s SoC costs $80, the display costs $75, and the camera components total $61.
For reference, keep in mind that both the Pixel 9 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro start at the same price: $999.