iPhone 14 Pro Max production is found to cost 46% of its base retail price per unit

Nikkei Asia has partnered with Fomalhaut Techno Solutions to take an iPhone 14 Pro Max apart and evaluate its individual components in terms of their cost, and it makes for expensive reading. The publication put the new Apple flagship's BoM at no less than US$501, or $40 more than that of a corresponding 13 Pro Max.

This is a patent hike in the cost of production surpassed by that of few recent Android smartphones, with the notable exception of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra.

The monster 14 Pro Max BoM was reportedly largely due to the upgrade to the A16 Bionic SoC at US$110, (or 2.4 times the cost associated with the use of the A15 Bionic) not to mention the flagship's new camera CMOS at US$15 per unit, or half again as much as that of the 13 Pro Max.

The analysis also broke the bill down by country of origin, which revealed that Apple spent only 24.5% of the 14 Pro Max BoM on parts known to have come from South Korea compared to 30.4% for that of its predecessor, which, considering the switch to the new Dynamic Island display type in the newer iPhones, might be a little odd.

Nevertheless, Nikkei Asia concluded that the BoM for new iPhones increased by approximately 20% in total year-on-year. This may have been due to a number of factors, the vanilla 14's new and more repair-friendly design included, not to mention the addition of a new Plus variant that Apple may or may not live to regret.

Nevertheless, the OEM has kept its USD starting prices relatively consistent in 2022, which means that it spent 45.59% of each 128GB iPhone 14 Pro Max's launch price on its manufacture, compared to just over 38% for the 13 Pro Max. Now, the company can only hope that early hints that the device is in demand translate to shipments throughout its life-cycle.

The 14 Pro Max: now available on Best Buy