Apple Tax: Apple Watch Costs Just $84 to Make

[henrytcasey]

Models of the Apple Watch may ring up as $349 at the register, but there's only $84 worth of parts inside the box.

Apple Tax: Apple Watch Costs Just $84 to Make : Read more

 

[house70]

Forgot to mention how in a year or so the battery, already diminutive in size, will start to last less and less time, so get out your wallets and buy another iWatch. Nothing easier than parting a fool and his money...

 

[neieus]

And this is why I don't buy Apple products.... move along Isheeps move along.

 

[Grognak]

It's like the Apple fanboys are asking to be exploited.

 

[husker]

All businesses maximize their profits based on what consumers are willing to pay. Does anybody think there is $2 worth of corn and powdered cheese in a bag of Doritos?

 

[nitrium]

"It's like the Apple fanboys are asking to be exploited."

That sounds about right. Nothing makes you feel as "special" as being knowingly gouged by Apple.

 

[alpha27]

yer slave labour in china while apple have 100billion in the bank!!!
talk about corporate greed, while there are f.a jobs in usa, hmm any1 see an imbalance?

 

[ap3x]

This article is not accurate. The main watch itself may have cost 84 dollars to make but most of the markup is in the bands which always, in any watch have ridiculous markups.

Take the base model apple watch and put it next to the moto360 and you would see that the apple watch cost much more to make than the moto and the markup in terms of percentage for the base model is close to the same. The bands on the watch is the stupid markup stuff.

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

Speaking of sheep. How do you know the price is correct? How do you know where they got the cost figures? What's their source? Clearly Apple didn't give it to them.

You read a head line and you sheep fall for it.

 

[baracubra]

Also not included in this is the R&D that went into designing the watch. Ok.. while it might not be that intricate, it did eat up quite a few engineer's time, not to mention the marketing costs associated with launching a new product as such..

 

[bloodfartz]

yeah, it costs $84 to make, because absolutely NO marketing or R&D went into the making of the iwatch... very smart reasoning, must feel great to call people sheeple from your high horse, when basic concepts escape you!

 

[InvalidError]

yeah, it costs $84 to make, because absolutely NO marketing or R&D went into the making of the iwatch... very smart reasoning, must feel great to call people sheeple from your high horse, when basic concepts escape you!

I still doubt there is $400 worth of R&D and marketing to make up the difference between parts cost and retail price.

If a dozen companies can manage to make semi-decent 7" tablets for less than $100, there is little doubt they could make 2" wrist-mounted tablets for under $100 if there really was strong market demand for it.

 

[mrmez]

How is ~$500 for a computer on your wrist a ridiculous price???

My Omega is nothing but good old stainless steel and sapphire.
It tells the time which I have to manually adjust every time I fly somewhere, and a date I have to change every time a month has less than 31 days.
That cost THOUSANDS of dollars. Not hundreds.

 

[alidan]

How is ~$500 for a computer on your wrist a ridiculous price???

My Omega is nothing but good old stainless steel and sapphire.
It tells the time which I have to manually adjust every time I fly somewhere, and a date I have to change every time a month has less than 31 days.
That cost THOUSANDS of dollars. Not hundreds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQAQqt9qxuY

thats what you are paying for... clockwork
clockwork in and of itself can be expensive especially if there is nothing digital in it to help run it...

now when you get past a certain point you stop paying for the cost of the watch and you are now paying for the cost of the brand... thousands if you aren't lying is not the cost of a clockwork watch or sapphire (remember these are industrial/synthetic gems so their cost is next to nothing compared to jewelry/investment gems... and inside the watch if i remember right there are 17-28 points where they use gems and its for wear and tear purposes)

just going to the omega website
"OMEGA Watches: Swiss Luxury Watch Manufacturer"
you are paying for luxury, as in you are wearing jewlery... you went passed the point of function a long time ago.

also, because someone will bring it up, in the case of grand complication showpieces, there are several thousand 1 off or extremely limited run pieces in them and years of engineering + a person who is an absolute master at assembly putting the watch together.

 

[timbozero]

Worse still is that phones and 3g/4g pads are available with heavy subsidisation on a contract, the watch is not. That makes the ridiculous margin even worse.

 

[photonboy]

I can't believe the WHINING...

If you don't want one don't buy it. If you do then go ahead and buy one. Whether it's "worth it" is completely up to the consumer.

For that matter, how many people really "need" anything more than a basic cellphone? I had one in 1999 with a basic black/white screen and it worked great.

Do you NEED a tablet? A gaming PC? Expensive shoes?

Sure the iWatch will have short battery life initially but did you expect Apple to simply wait several more years for better batteries while the competition brought out their own watches in the mean time?

I wonder how much thought people put into these comments.

 

[Symbolik]

Let them be. It keeps Android devices at a good price point and those who really know and appreciate just how polished Android actually is will keep reaping the rewards. We don't need 400 dollar Android watches.... Unless they're a snapdragon 8 core, 1080p OLED with 8 gigs of ram and a holographic interface. 😉

 

[alidan]

I can't believe the WHINING...

If you don't want one don't buy it. If you do then go ahead and buy one. Whether it's "worth it" is completely up to the consumer.

For that matter, how many people really "need" anything more than a basic cellphone? I had one in 1999 with a basic black/white screen and it worked great.

Do you NEED a tablet? A gaming PC? Expensive shoes?

Sure the iWatch will have short battery life initially but did you expect Apple to simply wait several more years for better batteries while the competition brought out their own watches in the mean time?

I wonder how much thought people put into these comments.

i would rather be dead than live without a pc capable of gaming.

 

[Haravikk]

I don't think it's fair to underestimate the research and development costs to create a new product; remember that the PS3, when including R&D, cost over $900 per unit during its first year on sale. It can take a long time for those not insignificant costs to be spread out enough that the product will actually break even, same with marketing (which will also be an ongoing cost), distribution, staff-training, support etc.

To be frank; there's no point in totalling up the parts in the device, as you're not buying a collection of parts, you're buying the product that they make, and that's a very different thing.

It's the same when people discuss self-building computers; yes, individual parts might cost you less if you build them yourselves, but if a manufacturer can take those same parts and put them in a smaller, specialised package, then you're not just paying for the parts anymore, and nor should you expect to be.

 

[kawininjazx]

And they pay their taxes in China.