iPhone 5s Component Costs Estimated to Begin at $199

IHS Suppli has released its estimate of the component costs involved in building the iPhone 5s, performing a virtual teardown based on information revealed by Apple and industry knowledge. The estimate, which does not include numerous other costs involved in product development, manufacturing, and sales, such as research and development, software, patent licenses, marketing, and distribution expenditures, pegs the component cost of the 16 GB iPhone 5s at $199.

The full report has not yet been released but AllThingsD received early access.

5steardown

Apple spends at least $191 on components to build a 16 gigabyte iPhone 5s. The cost rises to $210 for a 64GB unit. The cost of assembly adds another $8 per unit, bringing the range to between $199 and $218.

That cost estimate is pretty close to that of the original iPhone 5, which IHS pegged at about $205 last year. Without a contract, the iPhone sells at prices ranging from $649 to $849, depending on storage capacity.

The bill of materials includes $41 for the iPhone 5s display, $32 for the RF chips, $7 for the fingerprint sensor, and $19 for the A7 chip manufactured by Samsung. The report says the cheaper iPhone 5c costs between $173 and $183, with the A6 processor costing $13.

However, from a material perspective, the iPhone 5c and 5s are very similar. With the exception of the fingerprint sensor, A7 processor and "some newer memory chips that consume less power", IHS analyst Andrew Rassweiler says they are "basically the same".

However, Apple appears to have spent "a lot of time and money combining [radio frequency] chips", says Rassweiler. "Apple seems to be pushing its RF suppliers to do things they don't do for anyone else."

Those vendors, according to IHS’s analysis, are Qualcomm, Skyworks, Avago, RF Micro Devices and TriQuint Semiconductor, all of which make chips that handle different aspects of the iPhone’s connections to various wireless networks. These efforts toward getting the radio frequency chips to work together have the effect, Rassweiler said, of allowing the phones to support more frequency bands in a single phone than before. “The iPhone 5 supported no more than five LTE bands. The 5s and 5c can support as many as 13, and that’s unique,” he said. “Unlike other phone designers, Apple has spent a lot of time collaborating with the RF chip companies to find novel solutions that its competitors don’t have.”

Some older generations of iPhones required a number of different models to cover all the different cellular frequencies, but Rassweiler says the progress Apple has made on RF chips suggests the company may soon be able to produce a single iPhone model that works on all cellular frequencies, increasing economies of scale significantly.

The full IHS Suppli report should be released tomorrow.

Popular Stories

space black mbp

Apple Potentially Facing Worst Leak Since iPhone 4 Was Left in a Bar

Monday October 7, 2024 3:03 pm PDT by
Alleged photos and videos of an unannounced 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 chip continue to surface on social media, in what could be the worst product leak for Apple since an employee accidentally left an iPhone 4 prototype at a bar in California in 2010. The latest video of what could be a next-generation MacBook Pro was shared on YouTube Shorts today by Russian channel Romancev768, just...
Alleged M4 MacBook Pro Leak Video

Alleged M4 MacBook Pro Unboxing Video Reveals These Four Upgrades

Sunday October 6, 2024 6:10 pm PDT by
An alleged unboxing video for an unannounced 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 chip was uploaded to YouTube today by Russian channel Wylsacom. The video was later linked to on social media platform X by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. It is possible that this is the same MacBook Pro box shown in photos that were shared by leaker ShrimpApplePro in late September, as he claimed that this MacBook Pro...
watchos 11 vitals

Apple Watch Users Report Vitals App Detecting Illness Before Symptoms Appear

Monday October 7, 2024 5:34 am PDT by
Apple's new Vitals app for watchOS 11 appears to be impressing some users with its ability to detect potential illness days before symptoms manifest, according to recent reports on Reddit. The Apple Watch app, which analyzes key health metrics measured during sleep over the last seven days, appears to be providing early warnings of impending sickness for at least some Apple Watch wearers...
iPad mini review thumb

iPad Mini 7 Coming Next Month: What to Expect

Tuesday October 8, 2024 6:16 am PDT by
Rumors strongly suggest Apple will release the seventh-generation iPad mini in November, nearly three years after the last refresh. Here's a roundup of what we're expecting from the next version of Apple's small form factor tablet, based on the latest rumors and reports. Design and Display The new iPad mini is likely to retain its compact 8.3-inch display and overall design introduced with...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature Single Camera 2

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 17

Tuesday October 8, 2024 5:45 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different – already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.1 Beta 6

Monday October 7, 2024 4:27 pm PDT by
We're nearing the end of the iOS 18.1 beta testing process, but Apple is continuing to make tweaks to refine built-in features ahead of when the software launches. With testing winding down, there are fewer new additions, but Apple has made changes worth noting. The new beta is available for both developers and public beta testers. Control Center In the Control Center, Apple has added new...
M4 Real Feature Red

Gurman: Apple to Launch First M4 Macs and Potentially iPad Mini 7 on November 1

Sunday October 6, 2024 6:40 am PDT by
Apple will announce several new M4 Mac models around the end of October, with the company planning to launch at least some of them as soon as Friday, November 1, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman said that Apple will launch a new M4 version of its low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, as well as higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

Waiting for a New Apple TV? Here's What the Latest Rumors Say

Tuesday October 8, 2024 8:57 am PDT by
The current Apple TV was released two years ago this month, so you may be wondering when the next model will be released. Below, we recap rumors about a next-generation Apple TV. In January 2023, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that a new Apple TV was planned for release in the first half of 2024:Beyond the future smart displays and new speaker, Apple is working on revamping its TV box....

Top Rated Comments

HatterZero Avatar
144 months ago
These articles never take into thought of R & D costs, shipping costs, and labor costs. So now we will have 30 pages of apple is ripping people off posts
Score: 56 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tux Kapono Avatar
144 months ago
What I don't understand is the $19 cost difference between the 16GB and 64GB, and the $200 price difference. Same R&D, shipping, labor, marketing, etc. costs there.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djrod Avatar
144 months ago
It's always worth mentioning. Apple does not profit $451 per device.

The component cost is only a fraction considering R&D Engineer/HR/Legal/etc hourly wages during development time at CA wages and development tools and resources, and on and on and on.
Sure, but Apple do rip us off respect storage:

"$191 on components to build a 16 gigabyte iPhone 5s. The cost rises to $210 for a 64GB unit"

They charge $200 for something that costs them $19, that's quite a profit they make there
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sikkinixx Avatar
144 months ago
THEN WHY DOESN'T APPLE SELL THEM FOR $250?! THAT'S PLENTY OF PROFIT THEY ARE RIPPING US ALL OFF

[/sarcasm]
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
avanpelt Avatar
144 months ago
So, the 16 GB iPhone 5s costs $191 in parts and the 64 GB 5s costs $210 in parts? You can't tell me that there's a lot of extra time required to assemble a 64 GB version vs. a 16 GB version. So, Apple is paying an $19 premium for the 64 GB flash memory and charging the end-user $200 more. That is highway robbery plain and simple.

That said, people are continuing to pony up for the prices Apple's charging so there's really no reason for Apple to lower the prices.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Curun Avatar
144 months ago
It's always worth mentioning. Apple does not profit $451 per device.

The component cost is only a fraction considering R&D Engineer/HR/Legal/etc hourly wages during development time at CA wages and development tools and resources, and on and on and on.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)