"The 2GB Nano retails in the US for $199. Of that, iSuppli reckons, less that half - $90.18 - goes on components. Chuck in $8 per unit labour costs, and Apple's base margin is a whopping $100.82. You can probably add a little more for software development - they're paid in pizza, no?"
I love it when someone guesses raw material costs, fudges estimations of labor, and determines profit margins based on those 'facts' alone.
It's almost marx like.
It appears that http://www.isuppli.com/ does this sort of thing for a living.
They just may know what they are talking about.
Marx like? I think not. Any good business would try their hardest to estimate their comptetitor's product. Information is a valuable asset. I don't know if these people are right about nano's costs- but it is far from Marx-like to try estimate the cost of a product, quite the opposite.
We know perhaps a "case" for margins but that by itself is meaningless since we know nothing about R&D costs. They ignore the packaging design too. Lots of things. Register is almost the Debka File of the Tech world.
"You can probably add a little more for software development"
These are the same folks who go after pharmaceutical companies because the pill they charge $1 for only has $.03 of ingredients. Completely ignoring the sunk $500 million R&D expense.