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Greed defined as "They are charging more than I want to pay"?

Not quite as that thought comes from the thinking they are over pricing any given item. Charging more then it should cost which can line up with more then I am comfortable paying. Of course I don't think everything I cannot afford as over priced. If the 32GB iPhone 5s was the price of the current 16GB would I take issue with it? No. Can I buy it today? Nope.
 
So, let's talk about this type of innovation... Apple simply uses baseband processor from Qualcomm which make it possible to use the phone on different carriers/countries. So does Samsung. In addition, Samsung actually designs and manufactures its own LTE modems. That's innovation.

And yet you can't buy a Samsung LTE phone in the US (and most of Europe) that uses a Samsung CPU or Samsung LTE modem.
 
Exactly what is greedy about a company optimizing it's P&L statement to help your grandma's (et.al.) diversified retirement fund yield better dividends and/or hopefully a higher asset value for her later years?

Note that I said many companies, not all.
 
Sure, but Apple do rip us off respect storage:

"$191 on components to build a 16 gigabyte iPhone 5s. The cost rises to $210 for a 64GB unit"

They charge $200 for something that costs them $19, that's quite a profit they make there

Hmmm, let the consumer decide what is reasonable to pay for a product. That is the way it works now, Apple charges what the market is willing to pay.
 
Other parts continue to get better awhile the price stays the same (the way it should be) yet nothing has really changed with memory, likely because it is the easiest part to market as an upgrade.

Hmmm, let the consumer decide what is reasonable to pay for a product. That is the way it works now, Apple charges what the market is willing to pay.

Most don't think it is reasonable, they just have no other option if they want a 64GB iPhone and since it sells Apple is not going to care.

When my budget allows again would I think $100 is a LOT for a 32GB upgrade, YES! If I could afford it and wanted 64GB would I buy it? Likely. So that would basically tell Apple it's okay even if I think it is too much. Of course there is the $2000 contract so $100 seems small overall, just too much for memory.
 
It's always worth mentioning. Apple does not profit $451 per device.

The component cost is only a fraction considering R&D Engineer/HR/Legal/etc hourly wages during development time at CA wages and development tools and resources, and on and on and on.

you are right, but by assuming that apple going to sell 100 M iphone in a year and getting a profit of
100 M * 451$ = 45 B
all costs you mentioned will become too small to be considered because of the high components costs
100 M * 200$ = 20 B
which increases with every iphone.

I think that is obvious from apple profit report every Quarter. just compare the number of the sold devices with the reported profit.

I'm not saying you are not right, apple does not profit $451 per device but it does profit more than normal (with it's over priced devices).

at end I'm not pretty sure about that but that is what I think. maybe somebody can get more accurate numbers by doing some internet search.
 
So, the 16 GB iPhone 5s costs $191 in parts and the 64 GB 5s costs $210 in parts? You can't tell me that there's a lot of extra time required to assemble a 64 GB version vs. a 16 GB version. So, Apple is paying an $19 premium for the 64 GB flash memory and charging the end-user $200 more. That is highway robbery plain and simple.

That said, people are continuing to pony up for the prices Apple's charging so there's really no reason for Apple to lower the prices.

I know, it's a sad world we live in isn't it. If someone can't afford the extra $100 or $200 then why are they even bothering buying the phone in the first place as the cell contract will be far higher then that. You want to talk about highway robbery why not go complain to the US cell providers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. Worse still once the contract ends you still pay the same amount, no reduction in the plan cost like T-Mobile does.

You are correct about one thing, if enough people stop buying the iPhone Apple would probably have to rethink their strategy with the iPhone.
 
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So, let's talk about this type of innovation... Apple simply uses baseband processor from Qualcomm which make it possible to use the phone on different carriers/countries. So does Samsung. In addition, Samsung actually designs and manufactures its own LTE modems. That's innovation. Also, in addition to having the right chip, one has to put the right antenna(s). In case of Verizon and Sprint (CDMA), implementing simultaneous LTE data and voice required addition of another antenna. All Android vendors did just that but Apple was too cheap. They skimped on antennas and as a result produced a crippled smart phone.

And yet Samsung has not figured out to build a flagship phone that does not have a ugly camera hump on the back of it. BRILLANT!.
 
I know, it's a sad world we live in isn't it. If someone can't afford the extra $100 or $200 then why are they even bothering buying the phone in the first place as the cell contract will be far higher then that. You want to talk about highway robbery why not go complain to the US cell providers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. Worse still once the contract ends you still pay the same amount, no reduction in the plan cost like T-Mobile does.

You are correct about one thing, if enough people stop buying the iPhone Apple would probably have to rethink their strategy with the iPhone.

I'll never complain about contract prices and phone prices after seeing how much people pay in Lebanon.
 
And yet Samsung has not figured out to build a flagship phone that does not have a ugly camera hump on the back of it. BRILLANT!.

I can't believe Samsung did that with the Note 3. It's a phone I would think about yet that is not good style. I will get on Apple for no black 5c and not matching the front panel to the front. I will get on a phone that has a horrible bump for the camera.
 
It's always worth mentioning. Apple does not profit $451 per device.

The component cost is only a fraction considering R&D Engineer/HR/Legal/etc hourly wages during development time at CA wages and development tools and resources, and on and on and on.

Yup, typical rule of thumb is to price your product, one part for parts and build cost, one part for R&D, one part for marketing / sales, one part for all taxes and internal paper pushers and one to five parts for profit based on volume. With the non-contract coast if this around $800, my take is Apple's profit is around $200 per phone with a much smaller build cost knowing Apple supply chain commitments. My take is the iPhone BOM is around US$145.

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I can't believe Samsung did that with the Note 3. It's a phone I would think about yet that is not good style. I will get on Apple for no black 5c and not matching the front panel to the front. I will get on a phone that has a horrible bump for the camera.

Samsung pays very little R&D cost for consumer electronics other than the occasional mechanical and hardware engineer.
 
Yup, typical rule of thumb is to price your product, one part for parts and build cost, one part for R&D, one part for marketing / sales, one part for all taxes and internal paper pushers and one to five parts for profit based on volume. With the non-contract coast if this around $800, my take is Apple's profit is around $200 per phone with a much smaller build cost knowing Apple supply chain commitments. My take is the iPhone BOM is around US$145.

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Samsung pays very little R&D cost for consumer electronics other than the occasional mechanical and hardware engineer.

Stop spreading lies.

Apple: $3.4 billion
Samsung: $9.1 billion.

It's Apple that doesn't spend alot on R&D.
 
Steve would never have allowed this.

When he was in charge, every product had a reasonable price.
Now it's just pure robbery...

I think it's time to let Cook go.


:apple::apple::apple::apple:
 
Some quick math. $200 cost. $550 retail. $350 gross margin. 35% net margin or $192.50. $157.5 each unit amortized overhead. That includes 28% taxes or $98.00. So net R&D + overhead is $59.50. Only about 10% of retail due to taxation.

Rocketman

There is no profit in the above equation...
 
The cost of labor is pretty negligible. A group of several workers makes tens if not hundreds of phones an hour.

Labour costs aren't just for making the phone, what about the army of people that look after all the services that are provided free on the phone, logistics people too. Also no one mentions the cost of licensing IP from other companies which will also be a significant cost. Lets face it component costs are only a fraction of the actual cost of delivering devices and services like this. I'm not saying Apple isn't making a good profit on each device, they are, but this type of analysis is always sensationalised by articles like this which are just plain misleading.
 
Stop spreading lies.

Apple: $3.4 billion
Samsung: $9.1 billion.

It's Apple that doesn't spend alot on R&D.

Pretty funny considering that the people have reported that the iPhone 5c plastic shell feels more sturdy and looks of higher quality then Samsung's SG4. Maybe Samsung should increase their R&D budget more considering Apple seems to produce a better product on a tighter R&D budget.

Samsung spends 3x the R&D budget of Apple and they can't figure how to get rid of the fugly camera bump on their phones and phablets. Samsung should devote more that huge R&D budget to aesthetics instead of gimmicks.
 
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I'm criticizing based on my personal standards.

I have not said that a 22% profit margin is greedy.

16GB should no longer exist. I would not find a $50 increase from 32GB to 64GB greedy nor a $100 from 64GB to 128GB.

Since it is non-essential that is why I'm not giving them a hard time about their overall cost in general. It's hard not to see a $200 jump from 16GB to 64GB and anything other than that.

But that's my point. Your "personal standards" are arbitrary.

:confused:

So you :rolleyes: when someone else brings up shrinking market share, yet you bring it up yourself.

I didn't roll my eyes because you brought up shrinking market share. I rolled my eyes because of your ridiculous explanation for the shrinking market share.

IMHO - Apple has a choice - dominate the $399+ mobile market(off contract), or sell a small % more iPhones each year, while watching the market share shrink further and further each year.

They obviously chose the second one.

I'd still like to see the full details on their breakdown, including the case. Also, their numbers are just estimates and the case is probably one of the harder things to estimate so they

"Evidence"? There is no evidence of anything at this point.

Estimates from a reputable source are evidence to me. I doubt they are off in the difference between the two by that much.
 
I don't see the point to rant and rave about this. Apple is doing exactly what anyone else would do.

Now if the entire smartphone population didn't the buy the next version of iPhone, android, blackberry or whatever, then that profit margin will drop. Ha, who am I kidding-that will neeeever happen! :rolleyes:
 
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