Apple's profits on the iPhone's 512 GB options


Bloomberg:

Storage costs Apple about 25¢ per gigabyte, while the company charges customers roughly 78¢. By doubling the maximum available amount, it’s digging deeper into this earnings gold mine. Apple charges an extra $350 to jump from the 64GB minimum to the new 512GB option. Data compiled by Bloomberg show that, excluding assembly and related software work, the largest storage option could make the company about $134 more per phone than the storage tier below, up from $107 in last year’s models. The 512GB option could make Apple $241 more per phone than the 64GB model.

Apple has always strategically set device storage configurations to maximize profits. For the longest time, Apple offered 16 GB options on iPhones and iPads for the entry price tag while most upgraded to a higher version. The current scheme is to not offer a 128 GB option between 64 GB and 256. I assume Apple calculates it will make more money here too, in addition to offering this relatively super-sized 512 GB option.

The good news for consumers is that 64 GB cab be legitimately sufficient storage for average usage. The catch though is you'll likely need to pay for additional iCloud storage for that to work. So here again, Apple has worked out how to maximize profits as you can't even back up your device on the free tier, so you'll have to pay for a monthly storage plan. If you have a lot of photos and videos, that will likely be the top two tiers if not the highest option.