It was inevitable. As soon as the first batch of Apple iPhone 3G hardware started to hit the streets, a few intrepid iPhone 3G fans from iFixit.com went down to New Zealand to land themselves a new iPhone 3G – with the goal of disassembling the phone and baring all those iPhone 3G guts for the world to see.
Aside from the expected jumble of chips and electrical components stuffed inside the iPhone 3G’s thin casing – things like Intel NOR flash memory, a Skyworks power management chip (SKY77340), an Apple-branded ARM chip, and an Infineon SMARTi Power 3i – the dissection confirms that the multi-touch panel and glass overlay are no longer glued together. The original iPhone joined the two components together, making a cracked glass-overlay expensive to
replace. But, it seems any repair to the glass display alone could be a cheaper endeavor with the iPhone 3G.
Additionally, the logic and communications boards, which were two separate components in the original iPhone, are now integrated lengthwise in to a single circuit board. The integration presumably allows for a larger battery – which is itself no longer soldered to the logic board. That opens the door to a user-replaceable battery DIY procedure that 
should take the bite out of the once-expensive battery-replacement service from Apple.
That’s all well and good for those lucky enough to already have an iPhone 3G in their hands, but for the rest of the world waiting the last few hours until the global iPhone 3G launch-horizon passes through their neck of the woods, an iPhone 3G tear-down is hard to bear. But, it’s good to see Apple changing their design to accommodate user-serviceable parts and cheaper replacement options. Faster, better, more user-friendly – the iPhone 3G is a definite improvement over the first-generation kit.
[Via: iFixit]