So iSuppli who has become the export on this sort of thing have just released a study on the components cost of the new T-Mobile G1 and granted that's without labor costs, software, or research and development, but they've determined the phone costs about $144 for HTC to make.

Why is that significant? 

Well T-Mobile requires you to sign a two year contract to buy the phone as a way to recoup the cost of subsidizing it, but if they're charging you $179 on a phone that costs $144; not only are they not subsiding it but they might be making a profit on the initial sale.  

Now granted maybe it's Google and HTC doing something obscene; like charging T-Mobile something like $400 per G1 handset but the point is someone somewhere along the line is definitely getting ripped off on this. 

Via