Interesting article about Apple's margins
Ivan | Sun, 2006-01-15 23:42With its move to generic hardware for the new generations of Macs, Apple also makes it much easier to look at their margins. Below is a look at the possible cost to apple of the components for their new iMac.
* 512MB of PC5400 Ram: 37.79
* 160GB HDD: 74.50
* Core Duo Proccessor at 1.83Ghz (this is not currently available, but from prices of older Intel proccessors, we can infer that it will retail for around this) $250
* ATI x1600 graphics card with 128MB of vram: ~$150
* 8X superdrive: $37.99
* 17’’ LCD monitor (not widescreen, but has more pixels than the apple one, so should be of comparable price): $230
* Webcam: $26
* Case and mobo: probably around $50
* Wireless (bluetooth+802.11g): around $30And the total is $886.28. Of course, as Apple is buying in bulk and as many pieces come from in-house, their actual price will be much less. Some of the above prices were estimates, as the exact product is not sold in stores. This computer, the basic iMac, is sold for $1,299, leaving margins in excess of $400.
by Micah Wylde
Commenting on this Forum topic is closed.
Is this legal? Can we really speculate on the margins of the mother manufacturer we have grown to know and trust (gulp!)?
Perhaps the same thing has been done with PC manufacturers, but I do feel more comfortable knowing that Apple is making money and (relatively!) how much it is. It sort of gives us the opportunity to compare apples and ... well, you get what I mean.
Newbie to creativebits here, but I am happy to have joined the throng. I have been working withe Apples since 1981 (gasp!) and always found them unbelievably reliable. In fact, I remember a piece of dictation software Apple bundled with the 30SE (or whatever!) and it worked better than some of the more expensive programs today (perhaps they are just too complicated?).
Speaking of which, I have developed dexterity problems and am now training Via Voice to recognize my syntax (isn't that an interesting word?). Does anyone have experience with Via Voice (IBM) and MAC OS X.4? I run an Ibook 1.42 with 1g of ram.
Thanks,
Paul McIsaac
Powell River, BC
I think there were many cost factors that were left out of the list, to name a few:
- Software license (OS and bundled software)
- Quality control
- Assembly overhead
- Salaries
- Utility bills
- Factory
- Warranty
- Future development
... I'm sure I'll find more with a bit more focus, but you get the idea..
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http://twitter.com/waleedalzuhair
the mainboard.
should go around 120$ for a high end MB. with a lot of things on-board. like sound, firewire, pci-express, sata, usb 2.0. plus the shape of the mb is not standard. not quite a rectangle inside that small case.
the case is definetly more expensive. a good case is around $100. maybe even more and maybe even without the power supply.
the OS X is 130$. single user license.
mighty mouse is 50$.
plus remote and KB.
plus printed manuals, plus DVDs and full color box.
i think we are past the final price.
and i know for sure they could drop it 300$ and still make a profit.
waleed. the prices we considered here are end user prices. which already include what you mentioned. but to make everybody happy, add advertising costs.
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the best often die by their own hand
just to get away,
and those left behind can never quite understand
why anybody would ever want to get away from them
apple are so cool at selling design
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the best often die by their own hand
just to get away,
and those left behind can never quite understand
why anybody would ever want to get away from them