The Truth is Out There

by Chris Seibold Sep 22, 2005

When the nano was first unveiled people began opining that Apple was likely selling the device at a loss to bolster sales of songs via the iTunes music store. Of course that specualtion really amounts to “I can’t personally imagine how they do it so it must be impossible” argumentation which speaks more of the writer’s lack of imagination than anything else. The idea that Apple would sell something as a loss leader seemed laughable to most people who followed Apple for any length of time. If there is one thing Apple gets right every time it is margins. In any event BusinessWeek and iSupply have taken the time to actually analyze one of the things and, shocker of all shockers, Apple is going to do just fine.

Comments

  • This is certainly the problem with speculation, both sides of this argument have been presented, it is also being said that Apple is making 50% profit on each nano!  Taking a loss versus taking advantage, likely the truth is somewhere in the middle, around 25%, which is standard margin for Apple.

    Canada MacGlee had this to say on Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 284
  • I’m really impressed that iSupply knows all about how much Apple pays for things. 

    I guess Steve must have sent around a memo detailing all the costs, right?

    Or maybe iSupply supplied Steve with liquors and hookers and Steve blabbed all he knew.  Yeah.  That’s it.  Sounds just like him.

    Mike

    Canada M. T. MacPhee had this to say on Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 7
  • Ahh Mike, i wondered the same thing.Turns out that iSupply got an early model that still had all tiny pricetags attached to all the components.

    United States Chris Seibold had this to say on Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 317
  • from what I’ve heard, apple scored quite a deal with samsung for flash memory…

    United States makken had this to say on Sep 23, 2005 Posts: 21
  • Page 1 of 1 pages
You need log in, or register, in order to comment