Feb 10
iSupply just posted a virtual teardown manufacturing cost numbers for all models – I’ve shuffled the numbers a bit bit it seems that Apple has a hefty margin on each model (50%+) and I would not be surprised if we were to see big price drops within first three months after the release. If I had to predict I’d probably say that we will be seeing a $100 to $150 price drop as sometimes in June. Needless to say – the most expensive element of the system is the screen, followed by memory and 3G components. Take a look at the table below and hit the comments sections…
| 16GB without 3G | 16GB with 3G | 32GB without 3G | 32GB with 3G | 64GB without 3G | 64GB with 3G | |
| Core Components | ||||||
| Display and Touchscreen | $80 | $80 | $80 | $80 | $80 | $80 |
| Electromechanical and Mechanical | $35 | $35 | $35 | $35 | $35 | $35 |
| Battery (1) | $18 | $18 | $18 | $18 | $18 | $18 |
| MPU and Memory | $29 | $29 | $29 | $29 | $29 | $29 |
| ——- A4 Processor (2) | $17 | $17 | $17 | $17 | $17 | $17 |
| ——- Supporting DRAM (3) | $12 | $12 | $12 | $12 | $12 | $12 |
| WLAN n+BT+FM (4) | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 |
| User Interface Components (5) | $10 | $10 | $10 | $10 | $10 | $10 |
| Other Power Management Components | $2 | $2 | $2 | $2 | $2 | $2 |
| Configuration-Dependent Components | ||||||
| NAND Flash | $30 | $30 | $59 | $59 | $118 | $118 |
| Wireless (6) | $25 | $25 | $25 | |||
| GPS | $3 | $3 | $3 | |||
| Other Costs | ||||||
| Box Contents | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 |
| Totals | ||||||
| Total materials Cost | $219 | $246 | $249 | $276 | $308 | $335 |
| Total manufacturing Costs | $10 | $11 | $10 | $11 | $10 | $11 |
| Grand Total (Cost to Apple) | $229 | $258 | $259 | $287 | $318 | $346 |
| Retail Price | $499 | $629 | $599 | $729 | $699 | $829 |
| Retail – Cost | $270 | $371 | $340 | $442 | $381 | $483 |
| Retail – Cost as a percentage of price | 54% | 59% | 57% | 61% | 55% | 58% |
- (1) Li Ion Polymer 25W
- (2) ARM Core with GPU Integrated SoC (iSupply assumes this)
- (3) 4GB (512MB, PoP)
- (4) Single chip solution
- (5) Accelerometer, Compass – assumed present in all configurations
- (6) Baseband, RF, PA, etc.
If there really is a price drop from your predicted range,(which i hope is really true) i think that more customers will be flooding the apple stores ready to purchase an ipad. But what i was really hoping for was Flash, but i guess we will have to wait and see. Overall the ipad, having lacking a camera and flash, i think that it is still a great device for anybody and, hopefully, with the price drops people will still want one.