Here it is alleged that the iPhone 4 has a large mark-up from manufacturing.
Are these figures true? What is the evidence behind this claim?
NB: I mean the manufacturing costs. Not including marketing-development-distribution.
Here it is alleged that the iPhone 4 has a large mark-up from manufacturing.
Are these figures true? What is the evidence behind this claim?
NB: I mean the manufacturing costs. Not including marketing-development-distribution.
This answer is circumstantial evidence, but perhaps it is enough to persuade you that the figures are plausible.
Apple make a number of products.
Looking at Apple's latest (at time of writing) quarterly results, we can see their figures in the three months ended 24 September 2011.
They received $28,270,000,000 in Net sales, and had a Cost of Sales of $16,890,000,000. That is, their Cost of Goods Sold for all of their products accounted for around 60% of their sale price. Presumably (non-Apple Store) retailers add their own margin on top of that, so the real figure by the time you buy it will be lower still.
Note the sources of error here:
On a personal note, these figures fill me with yawn. The Cost of Goods Sold is only part of a company's costs. The fact that a successful hardware manufacturer would have significant mark-ups isn't surprising or noteworthy.