The New Math

post from Daring Fireball on 27 July 2007 12:00:00 PM. © Daring Fireball

The more you think about this equation from CARS, the funnier it gets.

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http://www.crazyapplerumors.com/?p=899

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iPhone Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts

post from Daring Fireball on 27 July 2007 11:50:00 AM. © Daring Fireball

Charles Arthur in The Guardian, back on July 12:

So are we all getting gouged here? The problem with these analyses is that they assume that these products fall out of a clear blue sky, their design realised by morphic resonance (where everyone suddenly understands something simultaneously), and that Apple – and other companies, for Toshiba’s creation of the miniature hard drive for the original iPod accounts for a lot of the product’s rocketing success – just sits around deciding where to buy advertising spots.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/12/comment.comment

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PhoneValet comes to iPhone

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 27 July 2007 11:30:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Parliant today released PhoneValet Anywhere for iPhone, delivering home and office voice mails to iP...

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http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/07/27/phonevalet.comes.to.iphone/

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iPhone and Black Hat 2007

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 27 July 2007 11:25:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Apple is facing pressure to fix a security problem with the iPhone in a matter of days, commentators...

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http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/07/27/iphone.and.black.hat.2007/

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Find It! for iPhone

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 27 July 2007 11:20:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

InfoSpace today released Find It! for Apple's iPhone, allowing owners of the new cellphone to access...

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http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/07/27/find.it.for.iphone/

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Reviews, NAPP adds session

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 27 July 2007 11:05:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

In brief: MacNN has reviewed LightZone from Light Crafts as well as the Spire USA Torq laptop backpa...

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http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/07/27/reviews.napp.adds.session/

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Geek and Granny : iPhone

post from Mac DevCenter on 27 July 2007 11:03:42 AM. © Mac DevCenter

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http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2007/07/geek_and_granny_iphone.html?CMP=OTC-13
IV03560550&ATT=Geek+and+Granny+iPhone

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BusinessWeek: Taking the iPhone Apart

post from Daring Fireball on 27 July 2007 10:24:42 AM. © Daring Fireball

More on iPhone tear-down component price estimates.

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http://daringfireball.net/2007/07/businessweek_taking_the_iphone_apart

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BusinessWeek: Taking the iPhone Apart

I wrote yesterday that I couldn’t find a single article on iPhone component costs citing a source other than iSuppli; iLounge contributing editor Charles Starrett emailed with a pointer to Arik Hesseldahl’s article for BusinessWeek earlier this month, citing Austin-based Portelligent for an iPhone tear-down. Portelligent’s estimated component cost for a $599 iPhone: $220.

Hesseldahl writes:

[Portelligent’s] estimate doesn’t include costs of final assembly, but it does give some insight into the gross margin on the device. Historically Apple’s gross margins have run ball park of 50 percent plus or minus a few points.

That’s just not true, unless by “historically”, he means “for a few years in the Sculley era during the late 1980s”. Apple’s gross margins are publicly available in their quarterly financial statements. Here are their gross margins for the last four years:

2007 Q3 37% 2007 Q2 35 2007 Q1 31 2006 Q4 29 2006 Q3 30 2006 Q2 30 2006 Q1 27 2005 Q4 28 2005 Q3 30 2005 Q2 30 2005 Q1 29 2004 Q4 27 2004 Q3 28 2004 Q2 28 2004 Q1 27

There is an interesting uptick in the last two quarters, but even with those two higher-than-usual quarters, the average for these 15 quarters comes out to 30 percent. That’s a lot of “minus” for “50 percent plus or minus a few points”.

Update: Here’s a table with Apple’s gross margins from 1992 until now. The average: 27 percent.

As with iSuppli, I’m not disputing Portelligent’s component cost estimates – nor am I disputing that these estimates are interesting and potentially useful. My dispute is that the sum of the component costs is significantly less than the cost to produce a product. Subtracting the component costs from the retail price does not give you the gross margin. Do Apple products assemble themselves in some sort of Willy Wonka-like magic factory?

Given Apple’s actual historical gross margin of around 30 percent, spending roughly half the retail price on components sounds reasonable to me: half the price for the components; 20 percent to assemble, package, and ship them; 30 percent profit.

Even so, it’s also the case that Apple products, and the iPhone in particular, are not manufactured wholly from off-the-shelf commodity components. Hesseldahl writes:

The most expensive component on the phone, [Portelligent CEO David] Carey says, is the touch screen, for which Apple tapped a little-known German concern called Balda. The estimated cost of $60 per unit is mostly an educated guess. “This screen is like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” says Carey.

Even the fact that Balda made it, is in fact, an educated guess. Carey told BusinessWeek that his analysis found no apparent markings that identified the screen’s origin. But Balda’s role in the screen has been something of an open secret in the wireless industry since the iPhone was first announced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in January. Even so, Apple apparently took steps to make the source of the screen hard to identity.

So, regardless how reasonable and informed these tear-downs are, they need to be treated by the press as estimates, not facts.

Read The Full Article:
http://daringfireball.net/2007/07/businessweek_taking_the_iphone_apart

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Aperture to Picasa

Aperture to Picasa Web Albums 1.2 ($25) is a tool that automatically uploads images processed throug...

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http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/07/27/aperture.to.picasa/