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R&D has no cost. They pay minimum wages to employees to research and develop new technology. There are no extra expenses to this.

R&D is a major cost. Apple does not pay minimum wage for these employees. You may be confusing R&D (Research and Developement) for manufacturing cost employees.
 
Agree...

They could afford to be at

$169

$249

$349

On contract and pass some of that memory savings onto customers.

But... then again.... they sold 2 million in 24 hours.... I think they have little incentive to cut the price.

Exactly, there is no need for them to reduce their price any.
 
Box Contents

"Box contents" (ie. charger,..headphones) true cost = $6

Lets just see how much profit they are making just from the accessories..

Headphones: $29
USB cable: $19
Plug: $19

Total: $67

Produced for under $6..

and that doesn't include the old iphone adaptor connector that most owners will need to buy at $29

Need I say more.
 
If you're hiring someone to build and install a fence on your property, and they quote you 5 days time at $3,000.... then you point out that the wood and nails only cost $400, are they ripping you off?

Cost of materials is not the complete cost of anything. Maybe Apple should sell a do-it-yourself iPhone kit for $200, and see if any of you can put it together?

Going with this analogy, they should charge you x amount for materials and x amount for installation. If you choose a more costly material, the installation fee should stay the same and it takes no more work on their end. You end up paying only the difference in materials.

Apple is making more profit on higher memory devices than on low end. Which doesn't sit right with a lot of people.

I understand there is money for r&d, marketing, etc. But those buying the more expensive phones shouldn't be subsidizing those costs for those buying cheaper phones.
 
So what your saying is, The apple tax is getting bigger,

couple this with the lack of innovation and bad product testing recently (Time Capsule PSUs, Nvidia GPU Issues, Screen issues on the iOS devices, iMacs and new Retina Macbook pros) and soon apple will realize that the "niche" they occupied as a quality product vendor, where they could get away with this sort of price gouging, has vanished.
 
Articles like this mean nothing, it may cost that for the parts but what about all of the other costs.

Packaging
Shipping
Import Taxes
Support Costs
iCloud
iOS Software development, testing and support
Research
Design
Licensing patents
etc...

It all adds up to a lot more than the cost of the components and putting them together. Given all this its impressive that Apple makes the margins it does.
 
R&D has no cost. They pay minimum wages to employees to research and develop new technology. There are no extra expenses to this.

R&D is probably the biggest cost, even if they paid their engineers minimum wage, which they don't, it would still be a cost.
 
That's a huge profit margin, but Samsung and htc are in the same range of suggested retail. I'm thinking about "leasing" my first iphone for the $300 contract price instead of paying the 749 asking price. Yesterday I was leaning toward paying full price and keeping my old plan. I might wait it out until a plan deal comes along.
 
It's business people. You charge as much as people are willing to pay. Cost of manufacture has nothing to do with setting retail price other than making a profit. I've had people do that to me when I gave them a quote to build some bookshelves. They were trying to figure up how much I would make. It has nothing to do with that.
 
Going with this analogy, they should charge you x amount for materials and x amount for installation. If you choose a more costly material, the installation fee should stay the same and it takes no more work on their end. You end up paying only the difference in materials.

Apple is making more profit on higher memory devices than on low end. Which doesn't sit right with a lot of people.

I understand there is money for r&d, marketing, etc. But those buying the more expensive phones shouldn't be subsidizing those costs for those buying cheaper phones.

Why doesn't it sit right? Apple are making the highest margin off the biggest spenders? The other way around wouldn't sit right with some people either.
 
Pass on some of those savings you greedy corporate shysters.

They do. To the shareholders in the form of a dividend. Your consumer purchase is an investment in your own productivity and self satisfaction. It is not a direct investment in to a company. The latter requires a brokerage account and some cash. Get a Schwab or Fidelity account and use it sometime before you demand a handout from a publicly traded corporation. :p
 
Articles like this mean nothing, it may cost that for the parts but what about all of the other costs.

Packaging
Shipping
Import Taxes
Support Costs
iCloud
iOS Software development, testing and support
Research
Design
Licensing patents
etc...

It all adds up to a lot more than the cost of the components and putting them together. Given all this its impressive that Apple makes the margins it does.

These costs don't go up just because you but a 64gb phone vs a 16gb phone. These costs should be the same and added to each phone accordingly. The $100 price difference for storage is a little overkill.
 
Articles like this mean nothing, it may cost that for the parts but what about all of the other costs.

Packaging
Shipping
Import Taxes
Support Costs
iCloud
iOS Software development, testing and support
Research
Design
Licensing patents
etc...

It all adds up to a lot more than the cost of the components and putting them together. Given all this its impressive that Apple makes the margins it does.

The article (well MacRumors version) states quite clearly that the component price does not include the many other factors that go into the phone price.
 
I am still on contract right now, but if I could get the new iPhone for say 250-300, I would probably do it. :(
 
R&D has no cost. They pay minimum wages to employees to research and develop new technology. There are no extra expenses to this.

LOL, funny funny! Such a jokester!

Actually you're right... They probably do make min wage - 365 days in a year x 24 hours in a day x min wage ($8.25?) = $72,270 ... reasonable for entry level hardware R&D.
 
The price for the 32GB and 64GB iPhone really should be a lot lower. I'm ok with Apple making profit, because hey, that's what business is for, but they shouldn't be charging $160 more than the cost of memory for the 64GB model.

I'd rather see the prices be $199, $249, $299, with $50 difference between models instead of $100.
 
Apple is making more profit on higher memory devices than on low end. Which doesn't sit right with a lot of people.

Yes, I agree. This doesn't sit right.

However, if 16gb was $199 and 32gb was $209 and 64gb was $229, would ANYONE buy the 16gb or 32gb?
 
Agreed

For me the worst development of recent times has been the move to soldered in memory and almost impossible to upgrade SSD in the laptop range - it has given Apple the power to gouge us for memory and storage - when previously you'd have had to be insane to buy Apple laptops with large memory and storage provided by Apple - much cheaper of course to do it yourself.

If you price out the storage in the MBPr, you'll find that you're not being gouged at all.
 
I LOVE that people are complaining about a for profit company wants to make money.

For all of you complaining about them making money, will you drive over to my house give me a tune up and change my oil for me, I'll buy the oil you do the work, but since the oil only costs me 15 dollars I think you should only be paid 15 dollars....:rolleyes:
 
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