Your $200 iPod nano costs about $90 to make
We've run these bits before where analysts step in and check out how much money they believe a device costs in parts (and manufacturing) to produce; this time it's iSuppli estimating the cost of goods in making a 2GB nano. And what figure did they happen come up with? $90.18. Yes, we know the retail on that thing is $200. Granted, they could be way off, but by their calculations you're paying a huge portion of that ninety bucks on the integrated circuits, screen, wheel, and flash memory. It's important to point out that iSuppli's figure does not include Apple's cost of business (marketing, operating their dozens of storefronts, employing tens of thousands globally, etc.), however, which they conservatively estimate as being anywhere from 15-20% of the unit's cost, a figure that just doesn't seem quite right to these ears. Then again, a 40% ($80) margin on the nano wouldn't exactly surprise us, either. Maybe we're in the wrong business after all.
