Originally Posted by alanwarwic:
“I know full well what chipsets cost.
You have Arm M0 MCUs starting at 75 cents and you have quality mid range Quad Cortex A7 type SOCs at $5. And I think that $5 was there well before the 20% YOY fall that has been reported in the trade press.
At a guess Apple will use a dual core Cortex A5 or A7 in their SOC costing them about $2. The battery will be 50 cents with the highest price item, the screen costing likely $5 maximum, but I'm being way over generous by the rumours.
And you could maybe reduce those by a third because of the massive bulk discounts but I suspect Apple seek supply guarantees rather than further cost savings there.
One thing for certain, that Apple Watch RRP actually manages to make the iPhone look good value.”
My Omega speedmaster professional which probably retails at 3.5k or more has a set of individual parts that most probably cost peanuts. The cost is in the labour and energy of the complex manufacturing process overall. Add in design, build quality and brand desirability and you get a very high retail price.
The Apple watch is what it is. It is like any other luxury product, worth what people are prepared to pay for it.
I've no idea if this will succeed or not and Apple are not immune from product failures ( remember the Apple newton ? )
I'm trying out an android wear watch and I'm on the fence about smart watches being of any real use.