As expected, Apple unveiled three phones at its Gather Round media event earlier this month: The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, which start at $999 and $1099, respectively; and the ‘budget’ $749 iPhone XR.
As expected, Apple unveiled three phones at its Gather Round media event earlier this month: The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, which start at $999 and $1099, respectively; and the ‘budget’ $749 iPhone XR.
Ottawa, Ontario-based firm TechInsights, which boasts five in-house state-of-the-art teardown laboratories, took a look inside the 256GB version of the iPhone XS Max and worked out how much its parts and construction cost Apple. It came up with a final figure of around $443, just over $800 less than the retail price.
TechInsights did a similar analysis on the now discontinued $999 iPhone X last year and estimated it cost Apple around $357.50 per unit. As was the case with the iPhone X, the iPhone XS Max’s most expensive component is the OLED display, which costs $80.50. The iPhone X, for comparison, has a 5.8-inch screen that came in at $77.27.
Increasing the screen size by 0.7 inches for just a few dollars is impressive. Speaking to Reuters, Al Cowsky, who oversees cost analysis at TechInsights, said Apple managed to keep expenses down by removing 3D Touch-related components. “All told, what they took out adds up to about $10, so this $80 estimate would have been about $90,” he said. “They had a trade-off in cost.”
The inclusion of Apple’s all-new A12 Bionic chip, the first 7nm chip to appear in a handset, also pushed overall manufacturing costs up.
Despite the higher retail prices, it appears that many consumers prefer Apple’s large screen offering. The iPhone XS Max outsold the iPhone XS by up to four times over its launch weekend.
