But the teardown that Wall Street and the investment community is waiting on is the one from the market research firm IHS iSuppli, whose team spent all day Saturday in a furious effort to dissemble a 32-gigabyte iPad 2 and estimate the cost that Apple paid for every component. They gave me an exclusive early look at their findings.

The point is to form a partial picture of the gross profit margin on every unit, a figure that Apple generally keeps to itself. This information is useful to investors and analysts who then factor the findings in with other assumptions they use to predict how much of a profit Apple is going to report over the next few quarters.

The headline of iSuppli’s teardown researcher is always the estimated bill-of-materials cost, which is the sum cost that it thinks Apple has paid for all the hardware inside the iPad 2. It doesn’t take into account the cost to develop software, or other things like packaging, shipping and distribution, or manufacturing.

In this case the estimates are for the 32-gigabyte, 3G version of the iPad which sells for $729, and there are two estimates, one for the AT&T version–$326.60, and one for the Verizon Wireless version–$323.35. Some of the wireless chips used in the AT&T version are a little more expensive or require an extra part. For example, on the Verizon version, GPS is integrated with the Qualcomm-made wireless baseband chip. On the AT&T version, an extra GPS chip had to be added along with the Broadcom-made Bluteooth and Wi-Fi chips, adding an extra cost of $1.50 per unit.

The baseband wireless chips were naturally different because AT&T and Verizon use different wireless technologies. Intel, the new owner of the former wireless chip division of Infineon, supplied the main wireless chip in the AT&T version, with supporting chips coming from TriQuint Semiconductor and Skyworks for a combined cost of $18.70.

Qualcomm supplied the main wireless chip Verizon version, with supporting chips coming from Skyworks, Avago Technologies, and Murata for a combined cost of $16.35. While there had been some speculation that Apple had used a Qualcomm chip in both versions, but it turned out not to be the case.

Aside from the wireless chips, the components are otherwise identical across both versions. Both sport Apple’s A5 chip, and iSuppli says that Samsung is still manufacturing it for Apple at a cost of $14. While there had been some talk in recent weeks that Apple was moving its chip manufacturing contract to Tawain Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, there’s no evidence that it has made such a move, at least not yet.

The most expensive component by far is the touch-sensitive display, coming at $127. ISuppli says that the LCD portion the unit they tore apart was built by LG Display, but Apple is known to use other sources for displays, including Samsung, and possibly ChiMei Innolux. The glass assembly covering the display is thought to come from TPK or WinTek. ISuppli says costs on the display are going up because manufacturing yields on LCDs have been lower. Apple is also thought to be using a more expensive glue to improve the efficiency of the process of bonding a new thinner type of Gorilla glass to the display.

Samsung supplied Apple with the NAND flash memory used in the iSuppli sample, holding on to a relationship that goes back several years to the days of the first iPod nano, though Toshiba is also known to supply Apple with flash. It is the world biggest consumer of flash memory, after all. Elpida supplied the DRAM memory. ISuppli estimates the combined cost of memory, both flash and DRAM plus a Micron-made MCP memory chip at $65.70.

Then there’s a set of components seen in the iPad 1 that remained the same in the iPad 2. STMicroelectronics supplied the gyroscope and the accelerometer, and AKM Semiconductor supplied the electronic compass. Broadcom supplied touch interface chips, while Texas Instruments supplied a touch screen driver chip. Analog Devices supplied a capacitive touch controller.

Finally there are the two cameras. ISuppli hasn’t yet named the suppliers there, though the usual candidate is Aptina, the former camera unit of Micron, though it’s possible that Apple sources them from more than one place.

ISuppli’s estimates are a lot higher than the findings of another teardown shop, UBM Techinsights. The Wall Street Journal reported that UBM’s cost estimate is about $270, but that estimate was made before it conducted its actual teardown, and didn’t change once it had.

Nothing! Well, nothing yet, anyway.

CEO Peter Bauer says the company has no plans to blow $1.4 billion in Intel (INTC) money on acquisitions simply to increase its size. “I expect there’ll be a lot of speculation about us making acquisitions now,” Bauer said yesterday. “But there’s nothing in the pipeline. We are under no pressure to make acquisitions just because we have a lot of cash.”

As for speculation that the newly cash-rich Infineon could become a takeover target, well, Bauer doesn’t see that happening anytime soon. “I don’t think that someone would come to us and attempt a hostile takeover just because we have a lot of money,” he said.

Which is interesting, and not just from a supplier diversifications standpoint. Qualcomm holds a 69 percent share of the CDMA mobile phone chipset market and would be the logical choice to provide silicon for the CDMA iPhone Apple is rumored to be developing for Verizon (VZ).

In any event, if Apple has tapped Qualcomm as its new baseband supplier, it’s a blow to Intel, which was surely hoping to hold on to Apple’s lucrative iPhone business when it bought Infineon’s wireless assets.

“The acquisition of Infineon’s wireless business strengthens the second pillar of our computing strategy—Internet connectivity—and enables us to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options,” Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement.

Expected to close in early 2011, the deal will see Intel operate Infineon’s Wireless Solutions group as a stand-alone company and continuing to support existing customers, including those including those who use ARM chips. It gives Intel a strong foothold in the market for smartphone chips, netting it a customer list that includes the likes of Research in Motion (RIMM), Samsung, Nokia (NOK) and Apple (AAPL) and — according to Infineon’s annual report, a 5.9 percent share of the wireless chip market. Said IDC analyst Flint Pulskamp, “Infineon would make Intel an instant heavyweight (in the mobile space) and buy them three, four years in R&D.”

The irony, of course, is that Intel was in something close to this position four years ago, but gave it up by selling off its mobile chip business to Marvell. As Intel VP Sean Maloney said at the time, “In recent years, Intel has made significant progress and won major customers with this business. The communications and application processor segments continue to present an attractive market opportunity, and we believe this business and its assets are an optimal fit for Marvell.”

If it’s able to consummate a deal, and sources say that could happen as early as today, Intel (INTC) will with one move become a major player in the smartphone chip market, a component supplier to the likes of RIM (RIMM), Samsung, Nokia (NOK) and Apple (AAPL)–you’ll find Infineon silicon in the iPad and iPhone. And that’s something Intel has openly lusted after for years–or at least since it sold off its own communications and application chip business to Marvell four years ago.

The electronics giant, which recently posted upbeat earnings and forecasts, was one of several chip makers slapped with steep fines by the European Commission for price fixing.

It faces the heaviest fine–145.7 million euros (US$182 million)–while rival Micron Technology (MU) got off the hook by cooperating with authorities in the investigation.

Along with Samsung, eight other chip makers, including Germany’s Infineon Technologies, South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor, Taiwan’s Nanya Technology, and Japan’s Elpida Memory and Toshiba, were fined a combined 330 million euros. The chip makers and analysts say it’s no big deal.

That’s because the market for dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, is booming as replacement demand from consumers and corporations for PCs is picking up. Capital spending over the past two years remained weak, curtailing global supply. Chip prices have held firm so far this year, enabling the likes of Samsung and Micron to post strong profits so far.

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“We believe various news articles and competitor notes calling for a build delay were just false alarms,” he writes. The company, of course, has now set an April 3 launch for Wi-Fi versions of the iPad, with 3G versions to ship toward the end of April. Berger, who tracks the chip industry, thinks many iPhone component suppliers will also sell into the iPad, including Infineon (IFX), Skyworks (SKWS), Triquint (TQNT), Broadcom (BRCM) and Texas Instruments (TXN). Production in the 4-5 million unit range would “drive some material revenues” for these companies, he says, “particularly BRCM.”

Meanwhiile, Berger has revised his estimates on iPod, iPhone, notebook and desktop builds.

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What is interesting here, though, are 100 percent unconfirmed hints that the next-generation iPhone will support faster 3G speeds. If this is indeed the case, it suggests that the device may run Infineon’s new SGOLD3 chipset. And if it does, that means it will be capable of supporting not just download speeds twice that of current 3G networks–theoretically 7.2 Mbps–but a five-megapixel camera and real-time video encoding/decoding with a new on-board video camera. Now that would make for an exciting summer, indeed.

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In the third quarter, the German chipmaker posted revenue of 1.15 billion euros, up 12 percent sequentially and two percent year over year. The company posted a loss before interest and taxes of 220 million, due in part to charges of 253 million euros for cost-reduction measures. The net loss from continuing operations was 244 million euros, or 0.33 euros per share.

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In a research note this morning, Citigroup’s Glen Yeung provided a review of the credit liabilities of the chip companies Citi has under coverage. He notes that Advance Micro Devices (AMD), Spansion (SPSN), Infineon (IFX) and Qimonda (QI) all have debt coming due in the next 15 months. “In each instance, we point out that an already difficult financial position is compromised by the current credit market,” Yeung noted.

He also noted that AMD, MU and QI also rank among the chip companies with the worst interest coverage ratio.

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Yesterday the creators of the popular ZiPhone jailbreak discovered in the latest test firmware for iPhone developers a reference to Infineon’s (IFX) SGOLD3H chipset–a chipset that supports 3G wireless broadband of up to 7.2 Mbit/s.

Now “industry sources” cited by TG Daily are claiming that the next-gen iPhone that runs on that chip will debut at WWDC. And there’s more. The device will be slimmer than its predecessor (by about 2.5 mm) and it will be offered in least two configurations at current price points: an 8GB version for $399 and a 16GB $499.