Apple has always played its production cards pretty close to its chest, but ABC recently gained unprecedented access to a production line in China.
The report produced for Nightline showed precisely what life is like for workers, but also gave some clues as to just how much it costs Apple to produce their mobile handsets.
Those clues have been pieced together by former Nokia business development manager Horace Dediu, and an estimated unit production cost revealed, reports CNET.
The Nightline report revealed that a single iPhone takes 24 hours to produce including six to eight hours of ‘burn in’, where software and components are tested.
With factory workers earning $1.78 per hour (roughly £1.28), Dediu calculated that the production cost of each unit ranged between $12.50 and $30 per unit (roughly £9 to £21).
CNET did report that Dediu believes the cost is actually much higher than their competition.
There are other costs with regards to delivery, research and continual development of technology, but what is implied by Dediu and argued by CNET is that when you buy an iPhone most of your money is actually being spent on the warranty.
That seems slightly rich though, considering that the warranty only lasts for one year!
Plus, with 24 hours going into producing each individual iPhone handset, you’d kind of hope that these things would be less flimsy.
