The answer is $260. That is how much it costs Apple to manufacture an iPad device. That also means that Apple makes at least $240 every time someone has purchased an iPad — this is interesting to note, because it reveals that the iPad could have been priced even cheaper. Much cheaper.
Apple still would have made a nice chunk of change, either way.
However, we know that Apple marks up their products because they are considered “luxury” items, but it doesn’t seem quite right considering how much Apple claimed that they wanted everyone to own one of these things.
After all, Apple is making a killing from the iTunes store, so why not give the hardware away and reap the rewards from software sales? That makes sense from a business and consumer perspective — everyone benefits.
Regardless, with Apple making around around a 200-percent return on investment, you better believe that Apple has plenty of room to drop the price — a $50 to $100 price drop with the second-generation iPad should be a shock to no one.
Yet, it just proves that Apple really doesn’t care if everyone owns an iPad, because they are still stuck in their thinking that they must charge high prices for their hardware, and that could hurt the company in the long term.
[via ComputerWorld]
