I was believing Bloomberg.com. The estimated margin would be in line with the gross margin reported by the makers of the BlackBerry, according to the article. (I don't have a BlackBerry either.)
It seems the iSuppli also did estimates for the X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3, and I don't recall there being any real controversy with those numbers.
Sam Or I wrote:That is for pure components, there is actually alot more cost to a product than just components. It does not account for R&D, software, factory retooling, labor, advertising, logistics, royalties, power, packaging, post sales support and many other things that lay outside the components relm.
A number of those costs (R&D, software, factory retooling, etc) can't be included in the unit production costs since the per-unit costs would then vary depending on the number of units produced. They do affect how many units must be sold in order to break even, of course. I haven't seen any reports on whether the iPhone has broken even yet, but a $200 price drop certainly suggests that Apple feels it can either break even more quickly or make more money through volume by selling the iPhone at $399 at this point in time.
Later...