iSuppli: iPad’s Actual Cost is $260
Shared by Glen
Dont forget there is a Labor cost to actually build it. but still, this is kinda normal for Production and cost for stuff like this. I don’t think Apple is too out of line with their price. but nice to know the actual cost.
You’re paying at least $499 for the iPad, but what’s the actual cost of its parts? According to analytics company iSuppli, approximately half of that amount.
iSuppli estimates that the total cost of iPad WiFi (not the 3G-enabled model, which will be arriving to the market later this month) is $259.60. As far as individual parts go, the iPad’s touchscreen costs $95, the aluminum back casing costs $10.50 and the processor costs $26.80. For comparison, the $699 version of the iPad costs $348.10 to manufacture, also roughly half of the retail price.
These numbers reveal a little more about how much money Apple makes from the sales of its devices. Remember the manufacturing price of the iPhone 3GS – according to iSuppli, the 16 GB model costs around $179 (the estimate is 9 months old, so the actual price is probably a bit different, depending on the prices of individual parts such as Flash memory). But the consumer price for the iPhone starts at $199 with a two-year contract, so one must take into consideration subsidies from mobile operators selling the device.
The iPad WiFi comes without a contract, which makes the math somewhat simpler. Even if we forget for a moment Apple’s huge investments into research and marketing for the iPad, it seems that Apple is making a hefty sum from every iPad it sells.
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