[MacNNUK]

According to UK Newspaper ..

Out of contract, the iPhone 4S will cost you £499 in the UK

Interesting diagram if nothing else !




Apple's iPhone 4S price: How much it really costs to make | Mail Online

Plus of course, software development costs, and a bit of profit for Apple.

[P]

If it's that cheap, I wonder why everyone isn't making one and putting the free android on it. Android is winning, you know!

Hint: assembly costs, the development costs for the production line, and the minor detail that these prices only come if you buy millions of them

[gradient]

+ R&D, Distribution, Marketing, Support infrastructure...

[amazing]

but it does make good headlines...and traffic to your site...

[ghporter]

I do not see anything about the cost of developing and building the production tools, nor about the cost of staffing the parts inventory, the assembly, and the warehousing of completed units. Payroll is often a very significant part of the cost of a product, whether it is manufactured by a human-staffed assembly line or a robotic one.

Still, the cost of the major parts is an interesting bit of information.

[Waragainstsleep]

Also no mention of the A5 CPU price.

Foxconn will have a markup too.

[exca1ibur]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I do not see anything about the cost of developing and building the production tools, nor about the cost of staffing the parts inventory, the assembly, and the warehousing of completed units. Payroll is often a very significant part of the cost of a product, whether it is manufactured by a human-staffed assembly line or a robotic one.

Still, the cost of the major parts is an interesting bit of information.

Because most of that stuff is outsourced to Foxconn... add in the volume discounts... and it still doesn't add up that the damn thing should cost $650 unlocked, IMO. Average electronics are about a 10%-15% markup from cost, except Apple. Where it is usually 300% or more.

[Waragainstsleep]

$650 = £410 Give or take.

The Daily Mail says £113. Add on another £20 for the CPU and any smaller parts they left out of their half-assed calculations. Add at least 10% to this total to account for the "journalist" who more than likely just shaved at least that much off his total to make the piece even more attention grabbing.
Factor in another £20 for R&D and shipping & logistics. Another £5 for the accessories in the box. Another £5 for the box & other packaging.

We're easily around the £200 mark now which gives us closer to Apple's usual markup on its hardware.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by exca1ibur 

Because most of that stuff is outsourced to Foxconn... add in the volume discounts... and it still doesn't add up that the damn thing should cost $650 unlocked, IMO. Average electronics are about a 10%-15% markup from cost, except Apple. Where it is usually 300% or more.

Apple typically has margins of around 35%.

Also, Siri alone set them back around $200 million for the purchase.

[cgc]

...Apple prolly spend a few bucks on R&D for the A5...there's so many facts and specifics missing it's really not a useful article.

[msuper69]

This means absolutely nothing.

The iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch are cheap when you consider what it would cost for YOU to make one on your own.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by msuper69 

This means absolutely nothing.

The iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch are cheap when you consider what it would cost for YOU to make one on your own.

This.

-t

[ghporter]

The unlocked price is inflated to discourage unlocking. But "off contract" pricing is also marked up to encourage users to buy on contract-which helps maintain customer usage. The "subsidized" price is probably fairly close to Apple's price with a modest profit. (Modest here could be anywhere from 5% to 20%.)

To be really instructive, this whole cost discussion should include costs such as contract construction and shipping, i.e. Foxconn's pricing TO Apple per unit including any incentives, plus the costs for getting the parts to Foxconn and for shipping the completed units out from the factory. Then we'd want to know what kind of margins Foxconn manages and what their costs are...