It’s 2010, deep inside the financial crisis, almost every big company has troubles, except Microsoft and Apple which reported last quarter amazing profits. Microsoft because of Windows 7, Apple because of its excellent marketing strategy and big margins they have on almost any of their product range.

    That’s one advantage of selling premium products: you get big margins, unlike the 5-10% usually hardware products have. How much do you think Apple is making with the recently launched iPad are? 20 – 30%? How about 200%? Yeap, you heard right: Apple makes up to 200% profit from one iPad. I know this because someone posted a tear down excel sheet with the cost of every chip inside the iPad. Of course Apple might negotiate a better deal if they buy in volume, and those costs don’t include shipping, marketing, software and licensing costs but they get plenty from 442$, the difference between the 729$ retail price and 287$ manufacturing cost for the 32 GB iPad with 3G.

    iPad manufacturing cost

    iPad manufacturing cost

    I bet none of the other hardware manufacturers out there earn this kind of cash from one sold device. And remember that Apple is ready to lower prices if consumers don’t hang on too tight on the new gizmo. How nice of them!

    Source: Netbook Live