Last Updated on December 1, 2021 by
The current price of the iPhone is $1000. If you were to make your own phone, how much would it cost?
We’ll start by disassembling an iPhone 7 ($400) and finding out what components are included in the price. Then we’ll break down those prices and compare them to the market average ($362).
Let’s begin with the screen. Apple uses a Retina HD display with 3D touch, multi-touch support, wide color gamut (P3), 625 cd/m2 max brightness (typical), 700:1 contrast ratio (typical), and wide viewing angle support for this model. The displays that sell on eBay right now range in size from 4 inches to 6 inches. Since most smartphones are now using HD displays, we’ll use a 5-inch display as our average.
The cost of the display ranges from $37 to $88. The iPhone’s display falls on the high end of that price range. If you were to purchase a 5-inch display on eBay, it would cost $52.50.
Next, we have the processor. Apple used an A10 Fusion chip in the iPhone 7. This is a Quad-core 64-bit ARMv8-A CPU with 2GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The processor is manufactured by TSMC and sells for $15 on eBay. We’ll use that as our price for this component.
How Much Does It Cost To Design A New iPhone?
The processor isn’t the only expensive component in the iPhone. Apple also pays a lot of money to have their phones designed.
In order to come up with a new iPhone design, they first have to come up with a prototype. That prototype then has to be sent off to manufacturers for production. All of those steps cost a lot of money.
In fact, it costs so much that most people don’t even want to think about it. A recent study found that it would cost around $1.6 billion dollars to design and make a new iPhone from scratch.
Assuming we’re using an A10 Fusion chip in our homemade phone, that would bring the total cost for the processor and display to $104.50.
Apple does more than just pay for components and assembly. They also develop and use a number of technologies that they then package together into the iPhone. This includes items like Touch ID, A11 Bionic chip, Apple Pay, and wireless charging.
Touch ID alone costs an estimated $20 per component. The A11 Bionic chip is around $26 as well. That brings the total cost to build an iPhone from scratch up to $130.50.
Since we don’t have those features built-in yet, we’ll skip those costs for now and add them on later when we’re done with our first version of the phone. For now, that brings us to a total cost of $130.50 + $104.50 = $235.
The next component we’ll look at is the camera. The iPhone 7 uses a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 7-megapixel front-facing camera. Cameras like these sell for around $30 on eBay. We’ll use that as our price for this component.
That brings the total cost for the camera to $30 + $235 = $265.
After that, we have the battery. The iPhone 7 has a 1960mAh battery. Batteries like this sell for around $7 on eBay. We’ll use that as our price for this component.
That brings the total cost for the battery to $7 + $265 = $272.
Will iPhones Always Be Made In China??
It is no secret that iPhones and other Apple products are made in China. But what you may not know is that the cost of making these products in China is rising. In fact, the cost to make an iPhone is now more than the retail price of the phone.
So why are iPhones still being made in China? The answer is simple: it’s cheaper to produce them there than anywhere else. Labor costs in China are much lower than they are in the United States, and this is a major factor in Apple’s decision to keep production there.
But will this always be the case? Some people believe that labor costs in China will continue to rise, and eventually, production will move elsewhere. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, Apple is enjoying the benefits of cheap labor in China. The company’s profits are at an all-time high, and it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon.
How much does it cost to manufacture an iPhone 11?
The iPhone 11 starts at $699, and the most expensive model costs $1,449. To make these phones, Apple spends about $240 on parts and $4.50 on assembly costs, according to IHS Markit.
That means it costs about $244.50 to make an iPhone 11. So where does that extra money go?
Most of the cost comes from the phone’s display, which accounts for about $83 of the total cost. The A13 Bionic chip is also expensive, accounting for about $32 of the cost.
Average iPhone Manufacture Cost (2007-2020)
The cost to make an iPhone has decreased significantly since 2007. In 2020, the cost to manufacture an iPhone ranges from $217.50 to $240.50 per unit, not including marketing, shipping, or other associated costs.
In 2007, it cost Apple Inc. an average of $286.44 to make each iPhone. The most expensive component of the phone was the touchscreen display, which cost an average of $65.00 per unit. Other major components included the processor ($26.00), memory ($24.00), and camera ($11.00).
By 2020, the cost of key components had decreased significantly. The touchscreen display now costs less than $50.00 per unit, and the processor costs $15.23. The cost of the memory decreased to $13.20 per unit, while the camera costs $5.20.
The total manufacturing cost in 2020 ranges from $217.50 to $240.50 per iPhone, not including marketing, shipping, or other associated costs (which can add anywhere between 5% and 30% to the manufacturer’s base price).
Other factors that contribute to this variability include storage capacity (larger models are more expensive) and cellular connectivity (LTE models are more expensive). These numbers represent a decrease of over 60% since 2007, demonstrating how Apple is able to produce high volumes of relatively inexpensive devices despite a steady increase in quality during that time.
