How much does Apple make on an IPad?

techs

Lifer
Sep 26, 2000
28,559
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0
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9150045/Apple_makes_208_on_each_499_iPad

Apple makes $208 on each $499 iPad
Profits jump to $446 on top-end $829 model, analyst estimates


Computerworld - The $499 version of the new iPad tablet actually runs Apple about $270 in materials and manufacturing costs, a Wall Street analyst said today.

According to a bill of materials (BOM) analysis by Brian Marshall of BroadPoint AmTech, the cost of goods inside Apple's 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad totals $270.50. That figure includes a $10 line item dedicated to manufacturing, but doesn't include another $20 set aside for under-warranty service costs. Adding the latter makes Marshall's bottom-line total $290.50.

The most expensive component on his price list was the 9.7-in. LCD touch-sensitive display, which he tagged at $100. The 16GB of memory and the aluminum case cost about $25 each, said Marshall, while the Apple A4 chip was listed at $15.

Because that model will sell for $499, Apple's profit margin is 42.9% after the $20 warranty set-aside is factored in.

As a hardware expert pointed out Wednesday, the iPad that can connect to the Internet via a 3G data network is even more profitable, since Apple adds a $130 surcharge for those tablets but incurs a very small hardware cost to add 3G.

By Marshall's estimate, the $629 16GB iPad with Wi-Fi and 3G costs Apple $306.50, just $16 more than the Wi-Fi-only model, giving the company a profit margin of 52%, a jump of nine percentage points.

In all cases, the Wi-Fi-plus-3G iPad provides a bigger margin that the same configuration in Wi-Fi-only. The $599 Wi-Fi-only iPad, which includes 32GB of flash storage, costs Apple $316, for a margin of 48.1%; the same iPad with 3G has a $729 price tag, but runs Apple only $332, a margin of 55.1%. That's the highest of any iPad according, to Marshall's analysis
.

Apple's iPad line as a whole enjoys a margin of approximately 50%, assuming that the lower-priced Wi-Fi-only tablets sell much better than the 3G models. In a research note to investment clients, Marshall called the iPad "another grand slam for Apple," and upped his estimate of iPad sales during 2010 from 2.2 million to 7 million.

High profit margins are standard for Apple, which earlier in the week boasted that its corporate margin for 2009's final quarter was 40.1%. Some products, in fact, have estimated margins even higher than Marshall's iPad numbers: The consensus for the iPhone 3GS is above 60%, for example.

"If [Marshall] is right, this shows that there's room going forward for Apple to reduce the price of the iPad," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. "I think the $499 price point is very aggressive, but if they dropped [the price] it would really put the iPad in the netbook range. At a lower price, consumers will have to decide what they want for a portable work and play device, a netbook or get an iPad."




Wow. That's some profit margin! Of course it doesn't take into account the advertising.....and those Apple ads ain't cheap.

oh, btw, I also read the 3g chip that apple uses cost 7.00 wholesale.
 
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Nik

Lifer
Jun 5, 2006
16,101
3
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What's your point? This has been obvious for years. Apple sells a base notebook starting at $1000 when Dell sells one that is equal to or better than for half the price. And Dell still makes money.

Apple is like stupid-people-tax.
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
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Apple buys the 3g chip from broadcom. Cost of manufaceuring is very low for these chips, but broadcom overcharges like crazy. I wouldn't trust the 16 dollar figure for the modem.

Edit: NVM i just read that broadcom is selling their chips for cheap now. I remember when they were very high wholsale maybe 40-50 dollars.
 
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sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,332
17,913
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Not surprising. You have to look at the price and not just think about material cost. There is all the other cost, most notably salaries and wages.

What, you think the shareholders are paying the employees? No, it's the consumers.

This is true in all companies, not just Apple. Apple just enjoys a slightly higher margin.
 

Nik

Lifer
Jun 5, 2006
16,101
3
56
sdifox, all of that (advertising, wages, material cost, assembly, box/packing, shipping, etc) is considered in CoGS (or Cost of Goods Sold). Profit comes after that.

Apple is basically spending a couple hundred to get this thing to market and customers are paying double for it.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,402
8,574
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What's your point? This has been obvious for years. Apple sells a base notebook starting at $1000 when Dell sells one that is equal to or better than for half the price. And Dell still makes money.

Apple is like stupid-people-tax.

inspiron 13 with similar specs to the macbook is $799. and has craptacular integrated graphics and build quality. and if you go to microcenter the macbook is $799.
 

iGas

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2009
6,240
1
0
sdifox, all of that (advertising, wages, material cost, assembly, box/packing, shipping, etc) is considered in CoGS (or Cost of Goods Sold). Profit comes after that.

Apple is basically spending a couple hundred to get this thing to market and customers are paying double for it.
What wrong with that?

It is customary for clothing/shoes to be markup at more than 100%.

Makeup & perfume margin is huge, I dare say several thousands percent.
 
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sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,332
17,913
126
sdifox, all of that (advertising, wages, material cost, assembly, box/packing, shipping, etc) is considered in CoGS (or Cost of Goods Sold). Profit comes after that.

Apple is basically spending a couple hundred to get this thing to market and customers are paying double for it.


from the bolded parts in the op it just looks like BOM Analysis, which is just the hardware.
 

Nik

Lifer
Jun 5, 2006
16,101
3
56
Oh, so this isn't an official release from Apple, but someone's random guessing? Okay.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
sdifox, all of that (advertising, wages, material cost, assembly, box/packing, shipping, etc) is considered in CoGS (or Cost of Goods Sold). Profit comes after that.

Apple is basically spending a couple hundred to get this thing to market and customers are paying double for it.

R&D isn't
 

Nik

Lifer
Jun 5, 2006
16,101
3
56
This isn't a software thread, why was it moved to Software? What the fuck...
 

fatpat268

Diamond Member
Jan 14, 2006
5,853
0
71
What's your point? This has been obvious for years. Apple sells a base notebook starting at $1000 when Dell sells one that is equal to or better than for half the price. And Dell still makes money.

Apple is like stupid-people-tax.

Uh no. When is this argument ever going to die?

Let's take the Macbook Pro 13. First we must compare 13 inchers only. We throw out all the 15 inch laptops, as they'll naturally be cheaper than a 13 inch.

Once you do that, the playing field is leveled. The inspiron 13 is cheap, but well... it's cheap. It's heavy for its size (nearly 5 lbs!), and pure plastic. You can get specs similar to the $999 13inch Macbook, but by that time, the configured dell will be near $800, and it'll still be missing certain things.

Now... lets completely level the playing field here.

Lets compare the Dell Studio XPS 13 with the Macbook Pro 13.

Dell XPS 13

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P7450 2.13GHz
Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Edge-to-Edge 13.3" HD WXGA Slim WLED LCD with 1.3 Megapixel Camera
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz
500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X Slot Load CD/DVD Burner
NVIDIA® GeForce® 9500M - 256MB
Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module (2.1+EDR)
Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish

$1244

Macbook Pro 13

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz
Snow Leopard OSX 10.6
13.3 Slim LED Display with 1.3 Megapixel Camera
2gb Ram
160gb Hard Drive
8x Slot Load Superdrive
Nvidia 9400m
802.11n
Bluetooth
Aluminum Unibody Case

$1199




Now... similar specs. You do get more ram and hard drive in the studio, and if you cover the cost to upgrade on the Macbook, the Macbook will cost slightly more. That said, you get a lighter laptop in the Macbook, more battery life, and a more durable case.

The Macbook Pro 13 is a premium laptop just like the Dell Studio XPS 13. It's not a bottom of the barrel laptop like those 15 inch $400 laptops are. Once you stop comparing apple laptops to those, your argument becomes much weaker.
 

wiretap

Senior member
Sep 28, 2006
642
0
71
If you don't like a company's product or profit margins, don't buy from them.
 

SamurAchzar

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2006
2,422
3
76
Actually this margin of Apple, as portrayed here, is not too high. I'd bet these are not real numbers though, they are based on market prices and being the "largest mobile device manufacturer in the world", Apple deals are closed behind the curtains. I'd guess the margin is about 20% higher than this.
 

iGas

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2009
6,240
1
0
If you don't like a company's product or profit margins, don't buy from them.
IMHO, the OP like to argue, because he would argue till death that luxury timepieces worth the money that they demand while it cost pennies to make.
 

goog40

Diamond Member
Mar 16, 2000
4,198
1
0
Using that logic MS makes about a 99% profit margin on each copy of Windows 7. Obviously there's no other costs associated with getting the product to market, the R&D fairies took care of all of that.
 

dawks

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,071
2
81
Though the speculating-analyst above was not talking about CoGS.

Yes, its irresponsible and sensationalistic journalism. Since Apple is clearly not making "$208 profit" on a $499 device.

There was hundreds of millions of R&D into this device, which should be share among the cost of each individual sale, theres the cost of iPhone OS development, customization, and support. Marketing costs, licensing costs, transportation and packaging costs, etc.

Also, lets not forget the A4 chip. If they had designed it from the ground up, you're looking at a massive cost, probably into the billions for R&D. There is the possibility that they may use it in other products, but for now that cost needs to be accounted for in the sale of the iPads. Who knows how much the chip actually costs in production, but I'll assume Apple has it contracted out which is MUCH cheaper, but at the scale in which they are ordering them at this point, and the fact that its a brand new design would hint that its still very expensive relatively speaking. $15 seem dirt cheap for a custom chip in low volume.

I didnt see a mention of the cost for system memory.. I'd guess this device will have 512, maybe even 1024megs RAM.. The iPhone 3g has 128, and iPhone 3GS has 256.. Since the iPad has a much higher resolution and more powerful CPU, I'd expect they'd want more memory to take advantage of the features.

They also say the 16gb flash chip is $25. What if they are using a high speed flash chip, thats actually $40 in volume? I doubt this author knows...

Very irresponsible journalism.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,978
1,178
126
What's your point? This has been obvious for years. Apple sells a base notebook starting at $1000 when Dell sells one that is equal to or better than for half the price. And Dell still makes money.

Apple is like stupid-people-tax.

Apple has better build quality, as many in here have already stated. And has better components. Apple uses slot loading DVD drives, where Dell doesn't. At least not on their lower end laptops. Slot loading drives cost a lot more than the shitty tray ones. And they are a lot nicer IMHO (worth the extra $$$)

*doesn't own a Apple laptop* I'm just saying. I do use a Dell Laptop daily and have to say the built quality isn't shit next to an Apple. Also the price wasn't that much less, it was $799 with specs on par with the $1k Apple one, which is MUCH better built. It's like comparing a $30 Rosewill ATX case to a $150 Coolermaster, and saying the Coolermaster sucks because it's so much more expensive.
 

Pliablemoose

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
25,195
0
56
What's your point? This has been obvious for years. Apple sells a base notebook starting at $1000 when Dell sells one that is equal to or better than for half the price. And Dell still makes money.

Apple is like stupid-people-tax.

Apple iPhone 3GS ($199) -> Motorola Droid ($199)

iPod Touch ($199, 8GB) -> Zune HD ($219, 16GB)

iPod Nano ($180, 16GB) -> Flip Ultra HD ($150)

iPod Shuffle ($80, 4GB) -> Sansa Clip+ ($70, 8GB)

Apple TV ($229, 160GB) -> Asus O!Play ($99)

MacBook ($999) -> Dell Studio 14z ($750)

MacBook Pro ($1200) -> HP Envy ($1700)

iMac ($1200, 21.5-inch) -> HP TouchSmart 600 ($1,050, 23-inch)

MacBook Air ($1500) -> Dell Adamo XPS ($2000)

Mac Mini ($600) -> Acer AspireRevo R3610 ($330)

Time Capsule (1TB, $299) -> D-Link DIR-685 (Expandable, $215)

Mac Pro ($2,500) -> Hackintosh (far less $$$)

http://gizmodo.com/5431521/the-best-alternatives-to-every-apple-product/gallery/

Yeah, what was that about stupid people & the Apple tax?