Apple is notoriously known as one of the most secretive companies in the world, but ABC has been given an unprecedented glimpse inside their Chinese factories to see how iPhone devices are made.
Although we know all too well how much it costs to own a pesky iPhone, it's unclear how much they actually cost to make. However, a blogger/analyst has come up with a rough estimate, based on clues in the report.
Horace Dediu, who is known for his analysis of Apple's business strategy and predictions of their financials, took two key findings from the report: that each iPhone takes 24 hours to build and that workers on the line make $1.78 an hour.
The blogger and analyst then came up with a new cost range for the labour it takes to make each device.
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Here's what he found, according to CNET.
- Those costs are likely to range between $12.5 and $30 per unit.
- Labor costs are still a small part of the overall cost structure at between 2 percent and 5 percent of sales price.
- The high level (141 steps) of human interaction in the process could be automated. However, the fact that it isn't implies that the cost of automation would be higher and the flexibility of the automated process would be lower.
Between $12.5 and $30. Even at the max estimate, that's about twenty quid. Barely enough to get a decent round in at the bouji places my various iPhone apps tell me to drink in.
However, Dediu claims that these manufacturing costs are likely to be as much as 300 per cent higher than competing devices, due to the intensity of the design and quality testing.
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ABC's report will air on Tuesday night on the network's Nightline news programme.
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