iPhone Teardown Finds 55 Pct Profit Margin

According to a research firm, Apple rakes in over $330 with the sale of every phone.

Now that the traffic at Apple’s cash registers has slowed down and the lines of people anxious to leave $600 in the stores have left: it’s time to ask the question that everyone’s wondering: Just how much money does Apple make with the sale of every iPhone? According to iSuppli, a market research firm that has done the math – a lot.

After tearing down the iPhone and totaling the cost of its components plus estimated manufacturing costs, iSuppli calculates that the phones cost Apple around $265.83 apiece to make – leaving the company with a jaw-dropping profit margin of 55 percent.

The new data quickly makes it apparent why Apple didn’t hold back supplies to create an artificial shortage at the phone’s launch: every iPhone sold netted the company around $330 in profit. With over 500,000 phones sold in just the first weekend, the iPhone launch looks extremely successful from a financial point of view. If estimates of the phone’s cost and initial sales are correct, Apple lined its pockets with at least $165 million in a matter of days.

News of the iPhone’s lucrative potential sent traders scurrying for Apple stock on Tuesday. Shares went up $5.91, or 4.9 percent, to $127.17.