Interest in the innards of mobile devices is running so high
that analysts aren’t waiting to take them apart. The latest
“virtual teardown” of the new iPhone 5 points to some unusual
decisions by Apple that come at a price.  IHS iSuppli estimated
Tuesday night that Apple pays $199 for the components in a
16-gigabyte model of the new handset, which retails for the same
amount with a service contract or $649 without it.  That figure
is well above the $167.50 component estimate produced last week
by UBM TechInsights, another firm that does both preliminary
reports as well as follow-up teardown analyses.  The largest
single chunk of the component bill–some $44, in IHS iSuppli’s
view–comes from the larger, more sophisticated display in the
iPhone 5. A key reason: Apple’s pioneering use of what is called
“in-cell” touch sensing.  Andrew Rassweiler, the firm’s senior
principal analyst for teardown services, noted that other
smartphones use a distinct capacitive touchscreen assembly that
is physically separate and pl