Teardown Reveals iPad Mini Costs $188 to Manufacture

Although Apple's iPad mini retails for $329, a teardown of the tiny tablet shows that it actually costs $188 to build.

A base model with Wi-Fi and 16 GB of NAND flash memory has a "bill of materials" of $188, plus an added manufacturing expense of $10, for a total of $198, according to a preliminary estimate from the IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service. At $80 to manufacture -- that's 43% of the BOM -- the mini's 7.9-inch display and touchscreen is its biggest cost.

Based on the ratio of cost to retail price, IHS found that the iPad mini is "slightly more profitable on a percentage basis" than the iPad 3, which launched this March.

"With the iPad mini, Apple is sticking to the…
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