iPod Component Margin & Geographic Breakdown

I’m always interested in box tear downs. Today I found two articles that summarize a paper on the breakdown of the $299USD – 30GB 3rd Generation iPod (2005). From a chip perspective this paper says that semiconductor market for iPod is roughly 6% of Apple iPod Revenue.

• $299 Retail Price ( $75 margin – $45 retail & $30 distribution )
• $224 Wholesale Price ( $80 margin to Apple)
• $144 Cost of Goods
  • “high value” chips – $13.30 ( 9% of COGS, 6% of Wholesale, or 4.5% of Retail )
  • this is BRCM video/media controller ($8.36) and portal player CPU ($4.94)

Here are details on the paper Who Captures Value in a Global Innovation System? The case of Apple’s iPod

Greg Linden, Kenneth L. Kraemer, Jason Dedrick //
Personal Computing Industry Center (PCIC) //
An Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Industry Center //
The Paul Merage School of Business //
University of California, Irvine //
June 2007

links to other articles on this paper

• The iPod Is Built Globally, But The Money Is Made In The US – Techdirt
• An iPod Has Global Value. Ask the (Many) Countries That Make It. – New York Times

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