iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed - Gizmodo Comments

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

Redwraithvienna — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:57:17 EST

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

Redwraithvienna

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

sumitk — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:04:11 EST

@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.

sumitk

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

rexdot — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:37:39 EST

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

rexdot

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

scotth0 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:42:53 EST

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

scotth0

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

RainyDayInterns — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:17:49 EST

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?

RainyDayInterns

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

PeterFriend — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:12:11 EST

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.

PeterFriend

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

Worf — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:54:51 EST

@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...

Worf

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

barrygeorge001 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:51:40 EST

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.

barrygeorge001

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

huygir — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:41:37 EST

@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.

huygir

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

banmojo — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:29:02 EST

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.

banmojo

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

DeeJayQueue — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:27:22 EST

@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.

DeeJayQueue

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

ANoel — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:39:25 EST

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

ANoel

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

raulr — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:37:41 EST

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

raulr

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

ODmanout — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:36:43 EST

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!

ODmanout

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

raulr — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:35:06 EST

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.

raulr

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

nickexperience — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:34:32 EST

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...

nickexperience

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

nickexperience — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:32:00 EST

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...

nickexperience

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

Redwraithvienna — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:30:29 EST

@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.

Redwraithvienna

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

websyndicate — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:30:18 EST

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.

websyndicate

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

Collins1 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:24:24 EST

@DeeJayQueue (1st comment):

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

Collins1

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

gamehendge2000 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:23:59 EST

@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.

gamehendge2000

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

timerider42 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:59:02 EST

You also have the designing and development costs.

timerider42

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

greysky — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:53:27 EST

well at least the music is free

greysky

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

DeeJayQueue — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:19:47 EST

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.

DeeJayQueue

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

DeeJayQueue — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:17:42 EST

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.

DeeJayQueue

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

trendspotter — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:48:36 EST

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...."

trendspotter

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

kaikai34 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:40:12 EST

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

kaikai34

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

thefastest — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:32:26 EST

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

thefastest

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

moveteam — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:28:39 EST

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.

moveteam

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

JChristopher — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:16:12 EST

@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?

JChristopher

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

EMoShunz — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:09:27 EST

@ImTheKing: industrial equipment mfg.

EMoShunz

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

nightsky — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:08:37 EST

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.

nightsky

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

Palestina — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:01:47 EST

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

Palestina

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

imTheKing — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:59:05 EST

@EMoShunz: what industry do you work in?

imTheKing

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

MiRong — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:56:06 EST

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

MiRong

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

EMoShunz — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:48:16 EST

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.

EMoShunz

iPod Touch Dissected, Analyzed

Redwraithvienna — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:42:18 EST

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.

Redwraithvienna