Teardown Cost Of iPhone 4S

We have been wondering about the manufacturing cost of iPhone 4 and even the iPhone 4S. So here are some of the official figures that were out recently by a market research group named IHS. While we have been paying $649 for the 16GB version of the phone, it actually costs around $196 which includes $188 of materials and $8 of manufacturing cost.

The total bill of materials gives us the idea that the display and the touch screen together make up the most expensive components of the phone amounting $23 for the display and $14 for the touch screen. The Samsung manufactured dual-core A5 processor adds $15 to the list along with the DRAM $9.10 and the 8MP camera which adds $17.60. Apple has not changed some of the basic functional components like the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and FM which were taken from Broadcom Corp., Cirrus Logic Inc. and Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. for the iPhone 4 and they add o the bill a mere $6.50. The power management and battery make up $7.20 and $5.90 respectively and other box components adds $7 more to the list. Below you can find the Bill of Materials formulated by IHS.

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The above prices are same for all the three, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, models of iPhone 4S but the only difference maker is the NAND flash memory which is $19.20 for 16GB, $38.40 for 32GB and $76.80 for the 64GB version of the phone. The total adds up to $188 for the base model, $207 for 32GB and $245 for the 64GB model of iPhone 4S. Here we can see that the actual retail price we pay is more than 3 times of the manufacturing cost of the product but we must also remember that Apple is here for business and it is the only reason that Apple is having more than $76 billion of cash reserves.

Source: IHS iSuppli