iSuppli , famous for carrying out quick teardowns of devices as soon as they hit the market have done so with the iPad as well. Now that the iPad has been released in the United States, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that iSuppli has been able to actually tear the device apart to generate a revised estimate of nearly $260 for the entry-level model's component costs. The $40 increase over earlier estimates is due to several factors, including the use of more chips than originally thought.

Once it took one apart, iSuppli found more silicon chips than it had expected powering interactions with the iPad's 9.7-inch screen. Apple uses three chips to control the iPad's touchscreen, for example. "Because of the sheer scale of this device, we're seeing more here than we expected to," says Rassweiler.
The most significant single price bump, however, appears to be the iPad's touchscreen, which checks in as a $95 part and up $15 from the company's earlier estimates.