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The inside of the new Apple TV likely resembles the interior of the iPod Touch, a move that allowed Apple to dramatically cut costs, a Canadian research company said today.

What's unknown, said Jeffrey Brown, who heads the business intelligence group at Ottawa-based UBM TechInsights, is whether the new model has the memory necessary to store downloaded applications, and Bluetooth connectivity that could be used by game controllers.

TechInsight's estimate pegged the Apple TV's "bill of materials" (BOM) at approximately $50, including packaging and the device's miniature remote control.

Brown's team hasn't torn apart an actual Apple TV -- the device doesn't go on sale until the end of this month -- but based its estimate on current information and a knowledge of component costs.

On Wednesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the smaller and less expensive Apple TV, which streams rented movies and TV programs to television sets. Apple's priced the new model at $99, a 57% discount from the original Apple TV's $229.

Some of the savings came at the expense of Intel, which had provided a pair of chipsets and the microprocessor in the original model, said Brown.

Computeworld has the details HERE!