The iPhone 12 is one of the newest models of smartphones on the market. Having been made by corporate giant Apple – it’s one of the most popular mobile devices that people from all over the world use. But there’s always the discussion of the quality of the parts that the device is made of – i.e. whether Apple charges a lot more than the real value of the device due to the powerful brand – or the device’s constituent parts are indeed expensive and of high quality. So, to help you out in determining which of the two is the case, we have done research on the iPhone 12 bill of materials. You can read all about the price of all the individual parts of the iPhone below, about where they are made – and about the approximate costs that Apple has in the process of creating a single iPhone 12 unit.
The most expensive iPhone 12 parts
It goes without saying that some of the parts that the iPhone consists of will be more expensive than the others. And the most expensive parts within the phone, according to our research, are the 5G modem, the organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), and the sensors. Since these parts need advanced technology to work – it makes perfect sense that they would be more expensive than some other parts.
As for the price tags themselves – the part with the biggest cost is the 5G modem. It’s created by Qualcomm and its price is set at around $90 for a single unit. The 5G modem model is called Snapdragon X55. Then comes the OLED panel – another important piece and relatively expensive piece of technology – that comes with a price tag of around $70. The company that designed most of the OLED panels is none other than Samsung – which is somewhat surprising given the fact that this company is a rival of Apple when it comes to smartphones – the Samsung Galaxy and the Apple iPhone are two of the most powerful brands of smartphones on the market.
The A14 Bionic chip has registered a notable level of improvement over the iPhone 11 chip counterpart. As such, it retains a handsome price of around $40 per unit – and it’s designed by Apple itself. The RAM costs approximately $13 per unit, while the flash memory has a price of approximately $19 per unit. Then there’s the unique part in regard to the iPhone 12 model – the CMOS image sensors – and they have a price of $5.40 up to $7.40 for a single unit.
An interesting thing to note here is that, despite the fact that the iPhone 12 has a built-in 5G modem, it still is somewhat smaller in size when compared to the predecessor, iPhone 11. And also, it’s around 32 grams lighter than iPhone 11 – which is also an interesting thing to note. The iPhone 12 has a battery with reduced strength of 10%, and the device’s motor is somewhat smaller in size. iPhone 12 was designed in this way to make room for the additional parts to be able to fit.
Where are the iPhone parts made?
The parts that the iPhone 12 consists of are made in several different countries. According to our research, the country where the most valuable parts are made in general, is South Korea. The parts made in this country represent around 26.8% of the iPhone 12’s total bill of materials. The United States of America is also an important site for the creation of some of the most valuable iPhone 12 parts – taking 21.9% of the device’s bill of materials. Japan takes around 13.6%, Taiwan comes at 11%, and the continent of Europe alongside a few other countries take around 22% of the iPhone 12’s bill of materials.
Mainland China is one of the most important parts where the iPhone 12 parts are assembled – and it’s a key site in this regard. Regardless – only 4.6% of the bill of materials represents parts that have been made in mainland China.
The overall costs of creating an iPhone
Our research shows that the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro bill of materials have a total price tag of $373 up to $406. This means that there is a notable discrepancy when you note the retail price of the iPhone smartphones – which range from $829 for the iPhone 12 retail version, to $999 for the iPhone 12 Pro retail version. This means that Apple makes nearly 3x profit from every sale of an iPhone device on the market.
But not so fast… there’s an important statistic that we’ve neglected to mention regarding the final price of creating an iPhone 12 unit – as related to the retail place of this device. We haven’t calculated the other expenses that Apple has in the creation of the iPhone 12 unit – namely the expenses for research and development, the salaries for the employees, marketing, the price of the software, etc. If we include all of these expenses in our calculations – then the total price for a single iPhone 12 unit gets a solid bump – and hence Apple’s profits from the sales of a single iPhone 12 unit, on average, are somewhat smaller.
What we know about wholesale iPhone parts
You’ve now learned about the individual constituent parts that the Apple iPhone 12 model is made out of. Some parts are more expensive than others – since they require more advanced technologies and more expensive raw materials to make. Also, you’ve learned of the few different countries including Taiwan, Mainland China, South Korea, the USA, and others – where most of the parts that the iPhone 12 bill of materials consists of are made. This knowledge will help you be better informed when you will make the decision which smartphone to purchase – knowing the exact models of the iPhone 12 constituent parts, where they are a made, and their individual price. We hope that you’ve learned from this article to appreciate the individual parts that the Apple iPhone is made of – and that their relationship with one another creates a whole that’s bigger than the sum of its parts.