The real cost of your iPhone: Apple spends less then $500 on......

MAIL ONLINE ^ | 16 October 2019 | Stacy Liberatore

[Skywise]

I’ve heard it’s worse with grocery stores that are making barely over 1-1 for food costs.

[bigbob]

Cost of goods sold has nothing to do with selling price. The difference is value, in the eye of their customer.

[yarddog]

My first computer was marked down from $800 to $40 and sold as is by Walmart. I got my cousin to get it running. He said the first purchaser had replaced the original processor with a better one and had not been able to get it working.

It’s hard drive was less than a gigabyte yet it did a lot. Windows 95. It even had several short videos built in.

[AFreeBird]

Does that include R&D, custom software etc.?

[bray]

Ain’t slave labor wonderful.

[dp0622]

Definitely the rent. And the machinery is expensive and like you said labor and the products being the dough mixers etc.

Then God knows how many fees and permits.

But he’s got 7 restaurants now, some in LA.

He’s a lawyer.

Gotti Jr’s personal attorney.

Jr. goes to the one in Brooklyn every now and then.

[dennisw]

You got a great deal. My first computer circa 1998 cost me $800. My most recent was gotten from ebay used. Laptop w Ryzen CPU rated at 7351 by passmark. Spent $300. Full HD resolution screen. 256GB NVME hard drive super fast!

[faithhopecharity]

so, not that it matters to anyone other than Apple shareholders, but the real cost of the product is considerably more than the $500 in the headline

i had to visit an Apple store (there are quite a number of them) for a repair and it costs a fortune in rent (shopping mall) and they had over a dozen visible guys on their payroll (plus a back room with more employees)

all that is part of the cost of supporting, and thus providing the product, too

[ctdonath2]

“$49 and I can’t imagine needing more features”

Because you just use it as a phone.

35 years ago I stood inside a $111,000,000 (today’s $) Cray 2 supercomputer and wondered what could be done if all that power was thrown at a user interface. Later I developed a fascination with touch screens.
Today all that power (x10) fits in your pocket for $1000.

It’s not a phone.
It’s a billion dollar supercomputer in your pocket.

[adorno]

Somebody should report to the democrat presidential candidates about how greedy Apple is with their iPhone, making Apple filthy rich. They should demand 90% of the profits from Apple as taxes.

[yarddog]

I think this one had been returned several times. Walmart just wanted to get rid of it, thus the as-is marking.

Honestly, I would never have gotten it going by myself.

[dennisw]

If I owned an IPhone or Ipad I would see an independent repair shop like this woman has https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPjp41qeXe1o_lp1US9TpWA/videos

And she is very very smart.

[Professional]

Oh the horror that they aren’t intentionally losing money???

Usually the product costs are 1/3 to 1/2 of MSRP.

But some folks don’t understand/like capitalism.

Think we’d have iPhones in socialist or communist state? LOL, noooooo

[yarddog]

Admittedly, I don’t really use most of the features but it still amazes me. It will determine my location just as accurately as my GPS. It has a huge map file.

Walmart even tracks me from it.

I have only used it when power was down, but I can surf the internet, check my email and a large number of things I don’t know how to use.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I guess R&D and software development are free, right?

Very disingenuous to take the manufacture of a product and then ignore all the related costs to get to the point where manufacture is even possible.

I have no clue what Apple’s profit margin is. All I know is capitalism exists to insure that the companies that provide the best tool to meet customer needs tend to make the best profits. If Apple is profiting from a better mouse trap, so be it. If people didn’t like their products, there wouldn’t be any profit, large or small.

[faithhopecharity]

thanks. in fact there was an independent repair guy right in the mall almost in front of the big Apple store...
but i had to take it there because the battery was defective (they said it was about to explode) and so the put in a new one

warranty repair.

[Vermont Lt]

The article tells you the “material” cost per unit. That’s cool, I Guess.

All too often people who have no concept of how a business works make judgements about profitability.

Generally, the general public tend to be ignorant about how businesses run.

[Darteaus94025]

Ah...the making.

Does the “making” include:
product research and development,
design,
distribution,
sales staff training,
web site update,
promotional materials,
marketing,
promotion,
shipping,
inventory management,
product management,
coordination with third party suppliers (cases, chargers, etc.)
proportional company overhead,

and the requisite management skills to make all of these steps occur successfully - regardless of employee turnover, sick days, etc. - while dealing with the various world-wide government, regulatory and taxing authorities and their changing personnel and regulations?

[cornfedcowboy]

I would be surprised if Apple has more than $150 wrapped up in their manufacturing an assembly. The $490 figure has to include all of their costs for engineering, administration, office rental, etc..

[minnesota_bound]

#16 also the cost of the nets draped around the plants that build the iphone to catch the suicide jumpers.