It's by no means the most timely report, but apparently Apple actually has a less profitable margin on the Mac Mini than much of their other hardware, according to iSuppli, as the base Mac Mini ($599) costs $387.14 to build.
Major Component Breakdown:
2GHz Core 2 Duo Processor
$118.35
GeForce 9400M
$65.16
120GB Hard Drive
$46.00
Pioneer DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
$32.00
WLAN/Bluetooth Module
$18.00
AC Power Adapter
$14.25 (Apple spends more money on the Mini's power adapter than its RAM!)
1GB DDR3 RAM
$10.00
Manufacturing Costs
$10.94
Interestingly enough, I've always looked at the Mac Mini as one of Apple's most expensive products in terms of the hardware you actually get for your money—while iSuppli's report offers proof to the contrary. Of course, the Mac Mini's profit margin is a bit different when you look at what Apple charges for their more premium model of the system—$800—when the only differences are 200GB more storage and an extra 1GB of RAM. In this case, the "Apple Tax" helps subsidize the pricing of the base Mac Mini.
As usual, these pricing figures only reflect the build and materials of a product, not development, testing, etc. [iSuppli]