$259.60: Cost of Components to an iPad 16GB

By Marcus Yam
published

How much do the materials inside an iPad cost? Around 52 percent the retail cost.

The iPad in its Wi-Fi-only form for between $499 for the low-end 16GB to $699 for the 64GB model – but how much does it cost in parts? Now that component analysis firm has its hands on a shipping model, it estimates that the base model that costs $499 in stores is made of around $259.60 in parts, according to BusinessWeek.

For the 32 GB version that sells for $599, iSuppli says it contains $289.10 in materials. The 64GB version at $699 cost $348.10 in parts.

The biggest part to the iPad is its 9.7-inch IPS LCD display, which costs around $95. The A4 custom-packaged CPU/GPU/RAM chip costs an estimated $26.80.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
46 Comments Comment from the forums
  • volks1470
    Holy freaking profit batman!
    Reply
  • You forgot to mention the amount apple pays to it's child labor overseas. Oh wait I see it now. It's in .000001 font. Tricky.
    Reply
  • Yrahcaz91
    And they sold how many hundred thousand of these puppies? This is a fine example of capitalism. Good for Apple.
    Reply
  • dimar
    I was thinking of getting the basic model to read comics. But now that I've seen this, I won't be getting it until the price goes to at least $359.60
    Reply
  • MrHectorEric
    Normally I would say that the software development and testing would make up more of the cost, but in this case Apple basically ported everything over from the iPod touch and iPhone so my usual statement doesn't apply. There's probably a price drop built into the price like the iPhone. In my mind, the basic iPad should be $350-$400 tops considering the lack of features and what little effort apparently went into development.
    Reply
  • jamoise
    not surprising actually, I'm not a fan of apple myself but it seems people don't consider all the costs involved in the overall product and only ever looks at the base cost of hardware, things like.. warranty, customer support, the cost of the software that runs the hardware (the costs involved in updating and supporting the software), nevermind the costs in actually setting up manufacturing facilities and prefab costs for all the items in it that are not a standard component. (im sure the mainboard inside it is not an "off the shelf item") obviously once they start recouping some of the costs of the initial outlay, the price will come down, as what usually happens to all things.
    Reply
  • knowom
    Funny that the only thing good about it costs the most.
    Reply
  • Trueno07
    "The A4 custom-packaged CPU/GPU/RAM chip costs an estimated $26.80."

    *Chokes*

    *Dies*
    Reply
  • dannyaa
    I just knew there'd be a bunch of young.... errr... what's the nice world.... less sharp.... people commenting on insane markups, capitalism, greed, etc.

    You do realize a company spends years working on a product and paying engineers and developers 6 figure salaries? Paying rent for their offices, retail stores? Paying salaries to staff retail store employees? Shipment fees? Marketing and advertising?

    Certainly they will make a profit... then again that's kind of the point, isn't it? Would you go to your job if you didn't make a profit?
    Reply
  • MrComputerTecho
    @dimar,
    Do you KNOW Apple...look at tere MacBook Pro..(its still at 3200) ...THERE NOT GOING TO GO DOWN...WANT TO KNOW WHY>>>>>>.....Apple has a sort of monopoly on the OSX OS. Not Allowing Anyone To Use It Unless Its APPLE. there For they can put the price at 500000000 and people....well eventually buy it ..you know>
    Reply