The U.S. funding financial institution TD Cowen has printed a report (through AppleInsider) breaking down the person elements of the iPhone 16 handsets and analyzing their respective prices. This invoice of supplies, or BOM, reveals the system’s pure manufacturing prices. (There are clearly different bills, from R&D to advertising and transport. However that is how a lot it prices to make.)
Learn on to teach your self. With this information you may amaze your Android-using buddies and, who is aware of, even perhaps persuade them to change to the iPhone. Effectively, in all probability not. However at the least you’ve put the information on the desk.
iPhone 16 prices greater than iPhone 15… however not by a lot
The Japanese every day newspaper Nikkei, which we quoted [translation] final yr when discussing the manufacturing prices of the iPhone 15, was stunned on the time that vital will increase in manufacturing prices had not brought on the sale worth to go up. The paper predicted that Apple must increase costs when it launched the iPhone 16… however thankfully, the authors had been unsuitable with this prediction. As we now know, Apple is sticking to the identical worth for an additional yr.
That is although manufacturing prices have risen once more, albeit solely marginally. For instance, from $395 for the usual iPhone 15 to $416 for the iPhone 16: a rise of $21 or 5 %.
The only largest expense within the BOM is the show at $65. However the largest relative price enhance is the RAM, which to assist Apple Intelligence has been bumped from 6GB to 8GB–and this implies a whopping 89 % worth rise, from $9 to $17. The bounce from the A16 to the A18 chip, in the meantime prices an additional $10, and the brand new controls (Digicam Management and the Motion button) solely $3 in whole. And a number of other parts have truly gone down in worth, together with the show, which price $3 extra within the earlier technology.
Right here’s how the prices shake out for the usual fashions this yr and final yr:
TD Cowen
What in regards to the iPhone 16 Professional Max?
The iPhone 16 Professional Max additionally prices extra to fabricate than its rapid predecessor, however once more the will increase are manageable. First place within the record of prices is shared by the rear digital camera and the show, at $80 every, whereas RAM is once more the biggest relative enhance. It’s gone up by 41 %, from $12 to $17, though the quantity of RAM hasn’t gone up; the 15 Professional Max additionally got here with 8GB. Slightly, the value rise this yr is as a result of expertise: LPDDR5 was used within the 15 Professional Max whereas the quicker LPDDR5X seems within the 16 Professional Max.
Total, the iPhone 16 Professional Max is $32 costlier to fabricate than the iPhone 15 Professional Max, with TD Cowen attributing 40 % of this to inflation and 60 % to new parts.
How dependable are these numbers?
Earlier than you rush off to boast about Apple’s generosity in maintaining costs stage regardless of rising prices, a phrase of warning: not everybody agrees on the numbers. In actual fact, TD Cowen’s estimates differ considerably from these made by Nikkei and Fomalhaut Techno Options.
For instance, Nikkei and Fomalhaut estimate the show within the iPhone 15 Professional Max at $115, in comparison with TD Cowen’s $75. The distinction is even larger for the chip: TD Cowen estimates $40, Nikkei a whopping $130. Total, Nikkei’s estimate for the iPhone 15 Professional Max is 23 % increased than TD Cowen’s.
The disparity might be as a result of completely different backgrounds of the businesses: TD Cowen is an funding financial institution, whereas Fomalhaut Techno Options makes a speciality of taking aside electronics, tracing the person parts again to their producers, after which estimating their worth.
This text initially appeared on our sister publication Macwelt and was translated and localized from German.