The 2018 iPhone X Will Cost Around 10% Less to Manufacture

[Maura]

According to a new report from Digitimes research analyst Luke Lin, via MacRumors, this year’s version of the iPhone X will cost Apple approximately 10% less to manufacture than its predecessor.

Lin says that he has heard from sources in Apple’s upstream supply chain that the new phone’s MBOM (manufacturer’s bill of materials) will be at least 10% lower than that of the first iPhone X, which was over $400 in 2017.

Lin thinks that this reduction in costs could see this year’s 5.8-inch OLED iPhone X actually being the cheapest of the three new iPhones that Apple is expected to launch this year, which also include a 6.5-inch OLED iPhone X Plus, and a 6.1-inch LCD iPhone. Lin says that recent engineering samples, such as the LPDDR memory, from the 5.8-inch OLED phone have revealed components with lower specs and capacities than the 6.1-inch LCD phone.

Lin adds that lower demand for last year’s iPhone X resulted in Apple requiring less OLED panels from Samsung than it had anticipated, and it was thought that this would help Samsung to drive a hard bargain with Apple when it comes to sourcing OLED panels for this year’s phones, but Lin says that Apple and Samsung have actually just agreed “satisfactory terms” with each other that have avoided an increase in pricing for the display panels.

Source: Second-Generation iPhone X Estimated to Cost Apple Up to 10% Less to Manufacture