Steve Ballmer might go on about the iPhone being heavily su idized, but today's Mobile Magazine reveals that the iPhone might be cheaper to build than you think. According to their estimates, the 4GB iPhone costs $245.83 to manufacture, about half of the five hundred dollar asking price. Add another $35 to step up to 8GB o oard. "Of course," they add, "These figures don't include R%26am D, advertising, and Steve Jo ' expe e account." If right, this dramatically undercuts the notion that Cingular is ma ively su idizing the iPhone in order to bring the price into line with co umer expectatio . It also brings the po ibility of a phone-le (albeit pretty expe ive) G6 iPod into greater likelihood.
I'm not big on equipment and manufacturing costing. For all I know, they are pulling these numbers out of thin air (John Gruber at Daring Fireball seems to think so, linking to A le I ider), but it's certainly an interesting place to continue discu ing the "su idies" controversy.
No comments:
Post a Comment