Doesnt sound that bad ... and yeah ... once you know that the production of your 200 € designer jeans costs 5 € more then the production of the no name cheapo jean thats costs 20 € you are gateful that the price is only double the component costs.

my industry is worse. everyone doubles.
raw material plus refine costs = 1, sell for 2
bend mold cut etc = 4, sell for 8
install or stock costs = 10, sell for 20
so basically a part that for labour and materials/mfg costs $3, we sell for $20.

That's so expensive.
= 2400 RMB .Oh my god.

@EMoShunz: what industry do you work in?

Add some shipping, taxes, resale structure, RMA expenses, marketing etc etc and you'll see it's in a very nice price indeed.

Don't forget. You also have to factor in: Marketing, transportation/shipping, patents, retail space and all the costs of that (i.e. power, rent, fixtures etc.), personnel, And many more small costs. At my store, a "100%" markup translates to about a 10% profit. People assume you are making all kinds of dough because of the markup from wholesale. It simply is not true. Granted Apple has more control, and no middle man, but I am sure they don't profit 150.00 for each touch sold. They just can't with all the other expenses of running a business.

@ImTheKing: industrial equipment mfg.

@REDWRAITHVIENNA
Those $200 (sorry, not in the mood to find the Euro symbol) jeans also come with a cost savings.

My wife has very long legs and the $20 jeans are not long enough. Ergo, she buys expensive jeans that fit.

Pair of jeans: $200
Lack of complaints about clothes not fitting: Priceless.

Oh yeah, the iTouch. Very cool. I wish I could justify buying one. Does a hack exist yet to increase the memory?

Another subject, but also regards Apple's pricing

In Europe all Apple's stuff is more pricy, but I've calculated on it:

iPod touch $299 = €217
217x25%VAT (in Denmark and Sweden) = €271

It retails between €277-€299.

@JChristopher: Wife with long legs not wearing jeans: priceless

the markup for eye-glasses at your local optometrist's is 400%...

I just dropped $650 for eyeglasses yesterday. I would venture to say the markup is 4,000%, grr. Where they get you is the lenses, "ok, so you want anti-glare coating, anti-scratch coating, light/thin lenses, polycarbonate, one-time installation fee, processing fee...."

funny... about a million other names comprise the hardware itself...most of which aren't exactly labeled "Toshiba" and "Samsung."

what are the manufacturers of the first 3 parts listed? Toshiba and Samsung. Methinks a typo.

Oh, and talk about markup. The things I could tell you about copy centers. I've worked for many. The average profit margin is 70%. That's including labor and materials costs. For things like Faxing it's 100% because they put the phone bill on the main store's P&L instead of breaking out a separate one for the center.

well at least the music is free

You also have the designing and development costs.

@DeeJayQueue:

If your copy centers had proper accounting, there should have been an allocation of corporate expenses (e.g. the phone bill) out to each dept. or cost center.

Since the faxing part of the business doesn't operate in a vacuum, although the margins may have been represented as 100(0000)%+, in reality they were somewhat lower.

@DeeJayQueue (1st comment):

I think he means that the manufacturers aren't labelled on the product.

Im okay with that. You gotta pay your developers that worked so hard on it. Remember this spawned off the iPhone it took 2 years to develop a good device. But now I have a dead spot on my phone now it leaves today to get fixed.

@JChristopher:

€ = alt gr + e :)

and i am not saying they are not worth it :). I would rather pay 200 € for a "brand" jean instead of 20 € for a H&M Jean which wont survive getting washed 3 times ...

i am just saying that the step up in princing is incredible. and in no connection to the production cost.

Are those the prices for one of each or are those the prices for one of each when you buy a million pieces? Would make a big difference...Kind of brilliant insofar as the Touch is essentially an iPhone without the phone parts, which means they can essentially split the design and manufacturing costs between the two...and I haven't really seen a whole lot of marketing in regards to the Touch...

I've owned Lucky jeans and cheap jeans...Lucky's cost way more and I just threw a pair on the trash heap after a year...there is no difference in quality, only cache (hey, I've got $100 to spend on jeans!). Now, touchscreen jeans with 8GB of storage and wi-fi capabilities...that would be worth it...

housing, headphone, sync cable, power adapter, labor, as someone mentioned licensing for patents(manufactures pay a lot for things that aren't physically in the products), etc.

Hey Trendspotter, As an eyeglasses seller I pay the bills for custom lens fabrication, and for all the frames you see on display. Our markup is about 100% and most of that goes to cover operating costs, ( lab bills, rent, utilities, saleries, insurance, computers, inventory, shipping etc. etc.). Yes, those $650 glasses seem expensive but you got everything customized to your specification like a tailored shirt or custom made pair of shoes and the location and hours of the optical is convenient too, right? Fly to India or China and find one of those back alley shops where you can get "cheap" materials. Then you can save some real money!

another couple of biggies I just thought of: software development as they continue to add new features and/or combat the hacking community and warranty repairs

I wonder what Meizu's costs for essentially the same tech is?

@gamehendge2000: See, what happens is that the paper, toner, supplies, etc for the fax machine fall under the store supplies budget, the same as for the back-office machines, and the phone bill gets paid all at once, so it's in a different area of the P&L altogether. On a whole, it does cost the company money, but it's shifted around such that in a microcosmic scale it doesn't cost the copy center anything, hence the 100% profit.

I don't mind paying for something I want, knowing half the money goes as profit to the company/people who made the device possible in the first place. What I DO mind is wanting to see Van Halen in JX in February and not being able to because I can't justify paying scalpers their bullshit markup. Now THAT is an industry that needs some federal regulation imo. What a load of crap. And don't spout off about 'capitalism at its best' - those fvcktards don't pay taxes therefore do not contribute ANYTHING to our society therefore ought to be castrated then drawn and quartered. Publicly.

End rant.

@Redwraithvienna: Come on... I've been buying Levi's all my life for $20-$40... I have pairs of Levi's that made it through a good 5-7 years of normal wear (like walking around campus, sitting in class and crawling around on carpet - don't ask) before I finally wore out the knees.

Ok, Levi's are "name brand" not el cheapo knock-offs, but they aren't $200 either.

my levis were $185. They are levis premium and the fit is worth the extra cost. Although I think the manufacturing cost is about the same.

@moveteam: YOu forgot that you Europeans have the tax already built into the price.

Very few places in North America will you actually pay sticker price for an iPod Touch, since tax is always paid on top of the price.

So it's $299 US + taxes, while yours is Euro277 including taxes...

Yet another thing to consider when comparing prices... sales tax actually built into the sticker price rather than a separate line item...

Hearing aids are the worst mark up.
And no sales because their prices are protected by federal legislation.
They have a very powerful lobby to ensure that stays that way, meanwhile American citizens foot the bill through medicare.

If you don't charge a hefty mark up...what's the point? How will folks get the money to buy all the other crap?

Woah! How did you know I was wearing a $300 sport coat?!?!?

when people say itouch it really irritates me. Seriously. Stop it

@ODMANOUT, as an Indian I *can* and do go to India every once in a while, and it's galling how much the markup is Stateswide for basically the same thing, and sometimes with worse workmanship and support. The priciest pieces back in the Indian alley shops are the ones where they flaunt the materials "imported from America", and even they're way cheaper.

@huygir:

Levis jeans cost 70 - 90 € here. not 20 - 40 USD. And yeah its a rip off. The price scale is :20- 40: no name, 60 - 100: big brand (levis, diesel) 100 - ++ : design jeans.

And remeber those are € prices not USD