Apple iPhone 6 costs just $200 to make

Teardown reports reveal Apple is once again raking in huge profit margins on its new iPhone lineup. Research firm IHS estimates the iPhone 6 has a manufacturing cost of $200 to $247, depending on the memory capacity, whereas the retail price of these devices ranges from $649 to $849. The same is true for the iPhone 6 Plus, this device costs $216 to make for the 16GB version and $263 for the 128GB model. Retail prices for the iPhone 6 Plus range from $749 to $949.

The profit margin for Apple's new iPhone comes in at around 69 percent, which is in-line with recent iPhone models buth higher than the earliest ones. As with all teardown reports, this figure purely focuses on the manufacturing costs. Estimates for R&D, shipping and marketing costs aren't included.

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.

Apple's high profit margin on the iPhone adds fuel to Bendgate. A growing number of iPhone 6 Plus users are reporting that their phones are bending under normal day-to-day usage. This is shaping up to be a serious problem for Apple that can't be fixed without a massive recall, if the issues are indeed as grave as perceived.

Source: Recode