Apple’s first 3nm SoC, available only in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, utilizes TSMC’s most expensive foundry technology.
The Nikkei Shimbun tracked and analyzed the manufacturing process of Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max. Finally found that the total cost of all components of the machine is about 558 U.S. dollars (currently about RMB 4079), an increase of 12% over the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Sub-components, the cost of the telephoto lens is equivalent to 3.8 times last year’s cost of $ 30; the titanium body costs $ 50, 43% more expensive than the previous stainless steel material; the A17 Pro chip cost of $130, compared with the A16 up 27%.
The 3nm process used in the A17 Pro is a significant price hike compared to the 4nm foundry-based A16 Bionic, but that’s not the most surprising part, as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, due out in 2022, is even a bit more expensive.
Nikkei Shimbun says that the A16 Bionic costs around $110 to manufacture and the A17 Pro around $130, a difference of just $20, and they believe that the tech giant may be levelling out costs by increasing the size of its shipments.
By comparison, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is around $160, which is clearly higher than the A17 Pro, though that $160 may also include the cost of things like the baseband.
What’s even more interesting is that the A17 Pro is only used in Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is currently used in millions of Android smartphones, but it still costs more than the A17 Pro.
Of course, most Android handset makers will also only be able to source Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which may not be an unacceptable outcome for some, but when you also consider that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is rumoured to be priced higher than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it’s only going to become more difficult to adjust profit margins for Qualcomm’s slew of partners.
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