iPhone 4S parts cost $188, study finds
Looking at the cost of Apple's components, iSuppli found that the device's "wireless section" costs the most, setting the company back $23.54 per iPhone produced. The iPhone 4S' Retina Display costs $23, while the touch screen goes for $14 per unit.Apple launched the iPhone 4S last week. The device features the same design as its predecessor, the iPhone 4, but boasts a few improvements, including an 8-megapixel camera and a dual-core processor. The device is also a world phone, allowing users to have wireless access in 200 countries around the globe.So far, the iPhone 4S has proven extremely popular. Apple announced on Monday that in its first weekend of availability, 4 million units of the iPhone 4S were sold worldwide, easily eclipsing the previous record set last year by the iPhone 4 of 1.7 million units sold in its first weekend.Related stories:iPhone 4 teardown reveals $188 cost to buildApple iPhone 3GS: The sum ($) of its parts Despite strength, Apple earnings miss the markBest of all for Apple, as its sales grow, the company's costs aren't rising all that much. In fact, last year, iSuppli found that iPhone 4 production costs started at $187.51. In 2009 when Apple launched the iPhone 3GS, that device cost $178.96 for the company to produce.Keeping costs low and selling more devices has helped Apple continue to post huge profits. Earlier this week, the company said that it generated a profit of $6.62 billion on $28.27 billion in revenue during its fiscal fourth quarter ended September 24. During the three-month period, it sold 17 million iPhone units.Apple did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment on how much it costs the company to produce a single iPhone 4S unit.
