IHS report: Verizon 64GB Galaxy S6 Edge costs about $290 to build, more than Apple's iPhones, and $34 more than Galaxy S5
Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code :
Context & Ripple Effects
IHS has made flagship teardowns a running scoreboard between Samsung and Apple, and this one lands a punch: the Verizon 64GB Galaxy S6 Edge costs about $290 to build — more than Apple's comparable iPhones and $34 more than the Galaxy S5 it replaced. The curved display and premium components are eating into the margin Samsung gets at retail.
The pattern holds over time: two years later IHS put the Galaxy S8 at $307.50 against a $720 starting price (a $43 jump over the S7), while Apple's flagships stayed cheaper to make — the iPhone 6s Plus came in around $236, roughly one-third of its $749 retail price.
First-order effects
- Samsung is spending more per unit on the S6 Edge than on any prior Galaxy S, so either its per-phone margin shrinks at current prices or the next generation carries a higher retail price.
- Apple gains a talking point: with its own builds costing less, it can defend its margin structure against the 'premium parts' narrative Samsung is selling with the Edge's curved screen.
Second-order effects
- Component suppliers of the Edge's costliest parts — the dual-edge display foremost — gain leverage in negotiations as Samsung's dependence on their output shows up in every teardown.
- Rival Android makers face a squeeze: matching the Edge's hardware means absorbing a similar bill-of-materials without Samsung's scale, pushing mid-tier players further downmarket.
Third-order effects
- If the trajectory from S5 to S6 Edge to S8 continues, flagship phones structurally become higher-cost, higher-price products, with teardown economics — not spec sheets — setting the floor for what a 'premium' device must charge.
- Teardown firms like IHS entrench themselves as the de facto auditors of smartphone value, making BOM disclosures a recurring public-relations battleground for Samsung and Apple alike.
The trend: Flagship smartphone build costs are ratcheting upward generation over generation, forcing manufacturers to choose between thinner margins and ever-higher retail prices.