It looks like the iPad Air is a win-win-win situation for Apple. A nice, shiny new device in time for Christmas, a slimmed down form factor, and, apparently, all for less than the production cost of the iPad 3.
A teardown by the IHS, picked up by the Telegraph, has revealed that the production costs for the fifth generation tablet were $42 lower than the third generation one. Apparently, the cheapest Air, packing 16GB of storage, costs just $279 to produce. That works out to around £170 over here, where the device then sells for £319.
That’s a six percent reduction from the $325 ( £202) cost of the third gen tablet. All told, it means that Apple will undoubtedly be making heaps more cash than they were just under two years ago.
The same report from last week also revealed that the Air managed to sim down its size by using fewer LEDs. Apparently the diplsay is the most expensive part of the device, costing around $90 ( £56) to produce.
Will Apple continue this trend or will 2014 see it beef up its production for a new, more significant update?
Source: Telegraph