Prescription Google Glass

Google Glass costs a bit more to make than previously reported, but the price of the parts and labor that go into the Google's wearable computer is still dwarfed by the $1500 the company charges for it, according to IHS Technology.

The research firm's Teardown Analysis Service on Tuesday said the hardware and manufacturing costs for Glass amount $152.47. That's approaching twice the amount TechInsight's earlier this month estimated as Google's costs for producing the futuristic headset, $79.78.

For what it's worth, just as Google earlier called the cost estimate as too low, the company on Tuesday offered a similar dismissal of the IHS report.

"While we appreciate another attempt to estimate the cost of Glass, this latest one from IHS, like's, is wildly off. Glass costs significantly more to produce," a Google spokesman told PCMag in an email.

Of course, since Google isn't revealing its bill of materials (BOM) and manufacturing costs for Glass, it's still worth poking around in the IHS report the same way we did with the one from

And clearly, while there's some fundamental disagreement between these two teardown teams about specific component costs, the overarching point is that Google is selling Glass at a pretty ridiculous margin, right?

Not so fast, said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of cost benchmarking services for IHS.

"As in any new product—especially a device that breaks new technological ground—the bill of materials (BOM) cost of Glass represent only a portion of the actual value of the system," Rassweiler said. "IHS has noted this before in other electronic devices, but this is most dramatically illustrated in Google Glass, where the vast majority of its cost is tied up in non-material costs that include non-recurring engineering (NRE) expenses, extensive software and platform development, as well as tooling costs, and other upfront outlays.


What's clear is that Glass is not a mass volume product for Google at this point, much less a commodity item that you'd expect to be sold at a slim margin. In fact, the headset still "feels like a prototype," according to Rassweiler, even a couple of years after Glass was first introduced at Google I/O and doled out in extremely limited quantities for a lengthy beta testing period.

"Although thousands of units are in the hands of users, Google Glass is not yet generally available through retail. The pre-mass-market status of Google Glass is evident by examining its design," Rassweiler said.

"The design employs many off-the-shelf components that could be further optimized. If a mass market for the product is established, chip makers are expected to offer more integrated chipsets specific to the application that will greatly improve all aspects of performance, including processing speed, energy efficiency, weight and size. Future product revisions are sure to make strides in all of these areas."

IHS put the BOM of Google Glass at $132.47 per unit, adding $20 in manufacturing expenses to arrive its total figure of $152.47. The research firm identified pretty much the same parts inside Glass as did, but IHS identified components by their suppliers and in some cases arrived at significantly higher costs-per-component than For example, IH S estimated that the headset's head-mounted liquid-crystal on silicon (LCOS) projector display from Himax Technologies costs Google $20 per unit, or around 15 percent of total BOM, while pegged the display as costing just $3.

For what it's worth, Google informed PCMag a couple of weeks ago that's estimate "is wrong" and that "the Glass Explorer Edition costs significantly more to produce" than around $80.

Google did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the IHS cost estimate.

Other notable components IHS found in Glass include an application processor from Texas Instruments plus several other integrated circuits from TI which together were estimated to cost $37.90, and a pair of accelerometers, one made by STMicroelectronics and the other by InvenSense.

IHS also guessed that the wearable computer's durable, titanium frame cost $22, making it "the single most expensive component of the device."

Here's the full IHS breakdown of estimated component costs for Google Glass:

IHS Google Glass BOM/Manufacturing Teardown