Research Firm IHS Finds Approx. Build Costs for New iPhones: 5C is $173 & 5S is $199

[dgstorm]

Sometimes it's just interesting to peer behind the scenes of our favorite shiny new tech device. For example, last week we shared the iFixit teardown of the iPhone 5S in all its "gory" detail. Their article focused on the build quality, technical specs and the repairability of the new device. There are other ways to approach that same thing though.

We found another breakdown of the device from IHS, but this one focuses on a different angle. IHS' intent is to give us an estimate of the total price for parts and labor to physically build the device (minus advertising costs, etc). Their testing and analysis determined the following approximate values for the new goodies from Apple. Here's a breakdown,

• The iPhone 5S 16GB model = $199
• The iPhone 5S 64GB model = $218
• The iPhone 5C 16GB model = $173
• The iPhone 5C 32GB model = $183

Of course, it's important to note that these estimates are based upon known supply chain current market prices. It's possible that Apple pays a different amount for some or all of the parts which make up each device. Still, more than likely, the final result will be pretty close to these estimates.

Source: AllThingsD