Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL; DR
- An analyst firm has lowered the estimated BoM cost of the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
- One of these phones costs just $464, which is less than half of the $1,099 retail price.
- This BoM price is 3.7% higher than the same model last year.
If you want the latest and greatest iPhone, you want the iPhone 14 Pro Max. It’s the most feature-packed iPhone yet, including the latest chipset, best camera, biggest display, biggest battery and all the latest features, including Dynamic Island. All of this will set you back at least $1,099 for the model with 128GB of internal storage.
However, Apple doesn’t charge $1,099 to make one. According to Counterpoint Research, Apple spends around $464 to create one 14 Pro Max. This is known as Bill-of-Materials (BoM) costing as it includes all the costs of the physical aspects of the equipment. As you can see, BoM costs less than half of what you’d pay at retail – almost 42%, to be more precise.
Driving most of the spending is Apple’s own silicon. According to Counterpoint, 22% of the BoM cost of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is due to the A15 Bionic and related components.
Of course, whenever we talk about the BoM price of a smartphone, we must inform you that this does not represent the total cost of the phone. The BoM price doesn’t cover things like shipping, for example, so the cost of getting the iPhone from the factory to the retail store (or your doorstep) isn’t included. Similarly, the BoM cost does not account for the R&D costs that Apple incurred in designing the phone, among many other costs.
Still, the iPhone 14 Pro Max BoM is an interesting number, mainly because it’s 3.7% higher than the previous iPhone 13 Pro Max. This means it will cost Apple at least 3.7% more to create the biggest iPhone in the latest series, but the US retail price will still be the same. This is a good example of why smartphone prices are skyrocketing globally (although they remain the same here in the US).
Regardless, that BoM price increase for the iPhone will likely affect US prices sooner rather than later. In other words, expect the iPhone 15 lineup to be nominally more expensive — and for Android phones to follow suit.