iPhone 5S Costs Apple Inc. (AAPL) $199 To Make

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) charges a fair price for the iPhone 5S. According to a recent teardown report from IHS iSuppli, the 16-gigabyte version tallies up a bill of $191 for materials, and $8 for manufacturing costs. The 32-gigabyte version costs $208 and the 64-gigabyte version costs $218.

iPhone 5S Costs Apple Inc. (AAPL) $199 To Make

Priciest features on iPhone 5S

The priciest feature of the iPhone 5S is the display and the sub-system for the touch screen, which is about $41. The pricing for this particular feature hasn’t changed since the iPhone 5.

PCMag offered some details on the discoveries. “The phone’s RF transceiver, which has been updated to support more 4G LTE bands, is the second most expensive component on the 5s. The $32 Qualcomm WTR1605L RF Transceiver supports up to seven simultaneous LTE connections, compared to the five available on the iPhone 5. The new A7 processor, meanwhile, costs $19 – more expensive than the $13 A6 in the iPhone 5 and 5c. The 64-bit A7 is produced by Samsung, despite their continued rivalry. This likely is because Samsung has a license to ARM’s 64-bit core,” IHS noted.

iPhone 5S memory upgrade

The memory for the iPhone 5S was upgraded to LPDDR3. This also the first time IHS discovered an advanced type of DRAM inside an electronic device. It’s speculated that it was needed for A7. It’s important to mention that LPDDR3 costs more. PCMag elaborated, “Memory in the iPhone 5s was updated to LPDDR3, which is the first time that the IHS Teardown Analysis Service has identified this advanced type of DRAM in an electronic product,” according to IHS, which speculated that it was necessary to support the A7. Not surprisingly, that makes it more expensive. LPDDR3 in the 5s is $11 compared to $9.50 for the LPDDR2 in the 5c.

The iPhone 5S is a premium device in terms of design and technology. It costs more to make such a device, but in the end it evens out for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which is a good thing.

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