14 DAY TRIAL // A preliminary analysis of the parts making up the iPhone 5s reveals that Apple pays $200 (or around €150) to have the phone manufactured. Customers must fork out $650 in the US and €699 across Europe to own the new toy.
Market research firm IHS carried out a teardown of the phone and came up with a bill of materials (BOM) worth just one dollar shy of $200 (€150), including manufacturing expenses.
This compares to a $197/€145 BOM for last year’s model, which is certainly impressive, considering that Apple this year factored in a state-of-the-art fingerprint sensor, an all-new processor, and several other novelties for what is essentially an unchanged manufacturing cost.
The table above shows the BOM and manufacturing cost based on a physical teardown of the phone, with IHS asking readers to note that the assessment is preliminary in nature (i.e. leaves out other expenses incurred by Apple, such as software, licensing, royalties, etc.).