On Mon, 14 May 2012 17:25:57 +0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Mon, 14 May 2012 06:01:24 +0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader

Perhaps the 16GB iPhone 4S would be a suitable example. It costs
about $200 to manufacture, but sells retail for $500 from various
vendors, or $650 from Verizon. Using the $500 sales price, the cost
of shipping an empty iphone box is:
$500 - $200 = $300
The $300 pays for everything EXCEPT the product. For Verizon, 3.25
times cost is rather low for electronics. 4.0 to 4.5 times cost is
more typical.

this has to be a joke. If you're not from NASA, it's got to be lehman
brothers, enron or arthur anderson to say with a straight face that it
costs $300 to ship an iphone because the retail price is $500 and the
phone costs $200 to make.

Quite real. The $300 difference between the retail price and the cost
from Apple is a conglomeration of profit and expenses. The profits to
Verizon and its stockholders. The expenses are a mixed bag of
executive compensation, sales incentives, advertising, taxes,
packaging, shipping, distribution, documentation, support, shrinkage,
returns, repairs, political contributions, debt retirement, assorted
bribes, charitable contributions, publicity, lavish product
announcement parties, slush funds, ad absurdium. If you think you can
sell a smartphone with less overhead, you're welcome to try. If you
need reassurance, just take any company and estimate the number of
employees that do NOT directly contribute to the production of the
product. People that do design, engineering, bookkeeping, support,
shipping, warehousing, etc. Now, try to run a company without them.
(yes, I know you can outsource or virtualize an entire company).



--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS