The newest flagship smartphone from Apple has been subjected to a bill-of-materials study by a market research agency. It expenses less than $600 to manufacture an iPhone 14 Pro Max, despite the fact that the cheapest iPhone 14 begins at $1,100. The business estimates that the raw materials for the entry-level device with 128GB of memory will cost $464.
The business uses a “blended” approach, which includes the non-5G version. The 5G variant may pay up to $474. However, it is not available in all regions. The report is a fascinating look into Apple’s expenditures for its best-selling product, even if it omits certain significant associated fees for each iPhone.
Counterpoint Research created the research because it routinely analyzes the Bill of Materials (BoM) of best-selling mobile devices. It publishes a synopsis and then develops a more in-depth version to offer to pay customers. Some intriguing morsels of information may be found in summary. For instance, if you compare the 13 Pro Max to the 16 Pro Max, you’ll see that the 16 Pro Max is $38 more expensive.
The cost hike is at least in part attributable to the fact that the brand-new A16 Bionic SoC must be manufactured using TSMC’s more expensive 4nm technology. According to the source, Apple’s newest processor, the A10 Fusion, costs the company $11 more per device over the A15 Bionic, the SoC used in all iPhone 13 devices and the basic model 14 and 14 Plus. TSMC’s 5nm node was used to manufacture it.
The upgraded 48MP camera technology and always-on display are cited in the article as two of the primary elements contributing to the high price tag, along with the more costly chipset. Forty percent of the price tag may be attributed to the CPU and the screen. Wireless chips, as well as camera systems, account for another 24%, while mysterious “others” suck up the remaining 1%. Certain components were cheaper earlier despite the high cost of the system-on-chip (SoC), camera, and screen.
The advent of 5G technology has led to a 13 percent price cut in the cellular components of smartphones, as reported by 9to5Mac. The 14 Pro Max was sold for the exact cost as the 13 Pro Max, notwithstanding Apple’s higher production expenses.
While these figures are intriguing, they fail to account for some major expenses that are not directly visible to the consumer, such as research and development, packaging, distribution, and marketing. Such sums would eat up a significant portion of the price of a product with a thin profit margin.
On the other hand, Apple is said to have recently said that its typical gross margin is roughly 37%. Incidentally, it matches the figure given by Samsung exactly.
