The iPhone 4S

[baja_yu]

Oh, and that iMac isn't representative of their numbers. The 2011 iMac starts at $1199 and has significantly better hardware and includes a Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard. It's not comparable.

Wow, what awesome powers of perception. Well no sh.. Sherlock. The article is almost 6 years old, those would have been the top (or at least higher end) components at that time.

And do you expect droids and other slates to have a more expensive bill of materials? I don't think so.

I (and probably every economist in the world) do: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/03/...fit-an-iphone/ [not on the price of parts but on the final markup before retail sales]

They (speaking generally here) need to have a high markup on their products to cover costs such as R&D, employee payments, etc.

So, what you're saying is that others don't do R&D and don't pay their employees?! Apple had almost $500.000 per employ profit last year, while others, like Qualcomm (which, if you ask me, has to do a LOT more R&D than Apple) had about $200K, RIM had $230K and so on. Well, that must mean that they research & develop the hell out of it there at Apple.