IHS estimates iPhone 6s Plus costs about $236 to build, one-third its $749 retail price
Apple's iPhone 6s Plus Costs an Estimated $236 to Make — $749 to Purchase — It costs Apple an estimated $236 to make and assemble its new iPhone 6s Plus, roughly one-third the $749 retail price of the smartphone …
Context & Ripple Effects
IHS's $236 build estimate for the iPhone 6s Plus extends a running series of teardown analyses: the firm had already pegged a 64GB Verizon Galaxy S6 Edge at about $290 to build earlier in 2015, more than comparable iPhones. The new figure — roughly one-third of the $749 retail price — gives analysts a recurring baseline for comparing Apple's hardware margins against Samsung's.
The one-third ratio matters because it holds across years: later teardowns put the base iPhone 7 at $225, the iPhone 8's materials at about 35% of its sale price, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max at $558 as component costs climbed — yet Apple's pricing formula stayed intact.
First-order effects
- Apple captures roughly two-thirds of the $749 sticker as margin on parts and assembly, and every IHS publication sharpens the public benchmark investors and suppliers use to judge that spread.
- Component suppliers can see exactly which inputs dominate the bill of materials, informing their negotiating leverage on memory, display, and radio chips.
Second-order effects
- Samsung's flagship faces the same yardstick — the S6 Edge's higher build cost than Apple's phones put pressure on its cost structure at the same price points, forcing either thinner margins or higher retail.
- Competitors' product planners now anchor launch pricing against published teardown ratios, making IHS-style estimates a de facto input into smartphone price-setting.
Third-order effects
- If the roughly one-third build-to-retail ratio keeps holding as costs rise from the 6s Plus era through the iPhone 15 generation, teardown firms become permanent infrastructure of the phone business — third parties effectively auditing the industry's margins each fall.
The trend: Annual teardown estimates are hardening into the smartphone industry's standard margin audit, letting outsiders track how much of each flagship's rising price is components versus brand premium.