Teardown Shows Apple’s iPhone 6 Cost at Least $200 to Build

Apple spends $200 to $247 in parts and labor to build an iPhone 6, a teardown analysis of the device shows. For the larger iPhone 6 Plus, the costs begin at $216 for the starting model and go as high as $263 for the 128 gigabyte model. The estimates by the research firm HIS include the cost of labor associated with assembly as between $4 and $4.50 for each device.

iPhone 6 models sell for between $649 and $849 without a contract. The iPhone 6 Plus models with the larger display sell for $749 and $949 without a contract. Apple charges $100 to $200 more for iPhone models with higher memory capacity. But Apple’s cost for the additional memory is about $47 more for the 128GB versions than for the 16GB versions. The result is profit margins that are slightly higher -- by about one percent -- on the 128GB models than on the 16GB models: About 70 percent for the 128GB models, and about 69 percent for the 16GB models.