Is it possible to open up an iPhone and take out the memory card and replace it?

[tymaster50]

With a 64gb card? I know it would be very difficult to do and there is a very good chance of ruining the phone but I just want to know if it is indeed possible to do.
I got my phone at radioshack on the 25th so idk if it would just be easier to try and swap them out and pay the $200?

 

[S.B.G]

No it isn't possible, practically speaking. It's soldered onto the main board and in all likelihood you don't possess or have access to the precision tools and robots that could possibly remove the chips safely and not damage anything.

 

[tymaster50]

No it isn't possible, practically speaking. It's soldered onto the main board and in all likelihood you don't possess or have access to the precision tools and robots that could possibly remove the chips safely and not damage anything.

that apple, charging $200 extra for $30 they have to spend. Lol I kinda wish they had removable storage now, 16gb is kinda small if you have a lot of music and apps.

 

[faiz23]

Yes...please make a diy out of it and post your results

 

[haruhiko]

that apple, charging $200 extra for $30 they have to spend. Lol I kinda wish they had removable storage now, 16gb is kinda small if you have a lot of music and apps.

The built in memory is not an SD card.

 

[unibility]

no

 

[Radiating]

that apple, charging $200 extra for $30 they have to spend. Lol I kinda wish they had removable storage now, 16gb is kinda small if you have a lot of music and apps.

Trust me you do not want removable storage. Removable micro SD cards are over 14 times slower than the internal flash memory. They will load programs slower than either LTE or wifi connections and will take 4 minutes to load a typical game. Cloud storage is much better than removable sotrage in every way for phones in the current state of the technology.

Like someone else said, you need a factory and a set of precision robots to remove the memory, just swap the phone out.

The extra memory may cost apple $42 but that's because they get extreme bulk discounts, the high speed flash memory to a consumer would cost $80 at the lowest to an average of $110 on the open market so even if you could replace it yourself, you'd pay a lot of money. $200 isn't as bad as people make it out to be considering it's high speed flash memory.

 

[tymaster50]

Trust me you do not want removable storage. Removable micro SD cards are over 14 times slower than the internal flash memory. They will load programs slower than either LTE or wifi connections and will take 4 minutes to load a typical game. Cloud storage is much better than removable sotrage in every way for phones in the current state of the technology.

Like someone else said, you need a factory and a set of precision robots to remove the memory, just swap the phone out.

The extra memory may cost apple $42 but that's because they get extreme bulk discounts, the high speed flash memory to a consumer would cost $80 at the lowest to an average of $110 on the open market so even if you could replace it yourself, you'd pay a lot of money. $200 isn't as bad as people make it out to be considering it's high speed flash memory.

It's just that Apple is a business and they can get away with charging insane amounts of money for medium to high end equipment. iPhone 5 costs $230 to make at max, they charge $900 for 64gb lol thats about a $620 gross profit on every phone they sell then multiply that by 5 million and that's how much they made in 3 days. No wonder their stock stays so high

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random unrelated post: I just found out today that those mobile point of sale things that the apple store employees use aren't iPhones, they're actually ipod touches lol

 

[Minhimalism]

It's just that Apple is a business and they can get away with charging insane amounts of money for medium to high end equipment. iPhone 5 costs $230 to make at max, they charge $900 for 64gb lol thats about a $620 gross profit on every phone they sell then multiply that by 5 million and that's how much they made in 3 days. No wonder their stock stays so high

That doesn't take into account R&D, distribution costs, etc.. but yeah, each phone has a huge profit margin. Just keep in mind every other company does the same thing too, Samsung especially- so don't just call Apple out.

 

[tymaster50]

random unrelated post: I just found out today that those mobile point of sale things that the apple store employees use aren't iPhones, they're actually ipod touches lol

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That doesn't take into account R&D, distribution costs, etc.. but yeah, each phone has a huge profit margin. Just keep in mind every other company does the same thing too, Samsung especially- so don't just call Apple out.

I'm just saying that the retail value is huge and it's more publicized but nobody seems to care. I don't know how much Samsung phones retail for since quite frankly I think a good majority of them are lacking in the looks department. Neither do I care to know since I will probably never use Android or Windows Phone.

 

[bogatyr]

random unrelated post: I just found out today that those mobile point of sale things that the apple store employees use aren't iPhones, they're actually ipod touches lol

The scanner caddy on them is also made for iPhone models too. I have a couple for development.

 

[tymaster50]

That doesn't take into account R&D, distribution costs, etc.. but yeah, each phone has a huge profit margin. Just keep in mind every other company does the same thing too, Samsung especially- so don't just call Apple out.

and besides Apple is freaking loaded, the money they make off iPhones alone is overkill. Counting all the iPod sales since 2001 means that they easily have at least 4 billion in the bank. That's not including other product or sales like royalties, iTunes, licensing, etc...
4 billion to spend on anything like buying other companies, any higher and it would just look bad

 

[Minhimalism]

random unrelated post: I just found out today that those mobile point of sale things that the apple store employees use aren't iPhones, they're actually ipod touches lol

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I'm just saying that the retail value is huge and it's more publicized but nobody seems to care. I don't know how much Samsung phones retail for since quite frankly I think a good majority of them are lacking in the looks department. Neither do I care to know since I will probably never use Android or Windows Phone.

They retail on the same level as the iPhone, it's important to know because you need to be aware of the competition as well.. without competition the iPhone would honestly be nothing. Also, yeah I get very upset no one knows anything about what the retail value is. People think I am a fool for paying anymore than $200 for an iPhone, but of course they just pull out daddy's credit card and resign their crazy contracts..

 

[bcaslis]

The purpose of all companies is to make money.Period. And they have over $100 Billion in the bank. Still doesn't make them a charity.

 

[tymaster50]

They retail on the same level as the iPhone, it's important to know because you need to be aware of the competition as well.. without competition the iPhone would honestly be nothing. Also, yeah I get very upset no one knows anything about what the retail value is. People think I am a fool for paying anymore than $200 for an iPhone, but of course they just pull out daddy's credit card and resign their crazy contracts..

it is because they have no reason to pay more than $200 for it lol if they have AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint anyway why buy the phone for an extra $400 just to put it on the same carrier

 

[Radiating]

It's just that Apple is a business and they can get away with charging insane amounts of money for medium to high end equipment. iPhone 5 costs $230 to make at max, they charge $900 for 64gb lol thats about a $620 gross profit on every phone they sell then multiply that by 5 million and that's how much they made in 3 days. No wonder their stock stays so high

----------

random unrelated post: I just found out today that those mobile point of sale things that the apple store employees use aren't iPhones, they're actually ipod touches lol

$230 but quality control is throwing out 30% of phones now. No other company would do that. Also to pre-order customers they shipped them by air mail across the world from the factory. That costs $30 per phone.

They are selling them for $700 on average since most models are 16GB, or 32GB, meaning that before R&D, opperating costs etc, they are only making 100% profit over cost. Out of the 17.5 billion in profit on 50 million sales per year, they spend about 3 billion per year on R&D and patents (purchases and service fees), plus another 1 billion per year to buy the technology companies needed to give you the latest tech in the iPhone alone (maps, fingerprint scanning, Siri etc), next they have to pay for the warranty which accounts for another 10% of the price, they also offer free training, customer service, phone support etc, all of that cost them 4.5 billion.


In the end only 25% of that $700 is profit. Not 75% as you make it out to be.

AND on top of all that they let you swap your phone for a replacement if you break it for less than their manufacturing cost if you break it. No othe manufacturer does that, you have to buy a new phone.

So yeah I consider that a pretty decent deal.

 

[MassiveAttack]

With a 64gb card? I know it would be very difficult to do and there is a very good chance of ruining the phone but I just want to know if it is indeed possible to do.
I got my phone at radioshack on the 25th so idk if it would just be easier to try and swap them out and pay the $200?

And they say there's no such thing as a dumb question

 

[Minhimalism]

it is because they have no reason to pay more than $200 for it lol if they have AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint anyway why buy the phone for an extra $400 just to put it on the same carrier

That's not the point- it's just they honestly believe the phone is only worth $200.

 

[geek36]

unless you secretly tell the apple tech you have to replace it with a board that has a 64gb on it.

 

[fruitpunch.ben]

$230 but quality control is throwing out 30% of phones now. No other company would do that. Also to pre-order customers they shipped them by air mail across the world from the factory. That costs $30 per phone.

They are selling them for $700 on average since most models are 16GB, or 32GB, meaning that before R&D, opperating costs etc, they are only making 100% profit over cost. Out of the 17.5 billion in profit on 50 million sales per year, they spend about 3 billion per year on R&D and patents (purchases and service fees), plus another 1 billion per year to buy the technology companies needed to give you the latest tech in the iPhone alone (maps, fingerprint scanning, Siri etc), next they have to pay for the warranty which accounts for another 10% of the price, they also offer free training, customer service, phone support etc, all of that cost them 4.5 billion.


In the end only 25% of that $700 is profit. Not 75% as you make it out to be.

AND on top of all that they let you swap your phone for a replacement if you break it for less than their manufacturing cost if you break it. No othe manufacturer does that, you have to buy a new phone.

So yeah I consider that a pretty decent deal.

Nice post. I suspect, actually, that the $225 you pay for an iPhone 5 replacement is exactly the manufacturing cost of the phone. It matches up very closely with estimates of the manufacturing cost, and it makes a lot of sense:
1. You've already paid full price (via carrier subsidy, etc.) for your iPhone, so they have no need to recoup R&D costs, etc.
2. On the other hand, it makes a lot of sense to sell you a cheaper iPhone, because it keeps you in the ecosystem. If they charged full price for a new phone, most people would buy a cheap android phone to use while they waited out their contract, and then may never come back to Apple.
3. But I don't believe its in Apple's genes ever to lose money on anything. And so that's why I think they're at least getting back their manufacturing costs when you pay $225 for a new iPhone

 

[tymaster50]

And they say there's no such thing as a dumb question

Too bad it isn't a dumb question.