le MERCANTILE: November 2012

By Mark Prigg

PUBLISHED: 12:07, 5 November 2012 | UPDATED: 12:46, 5 November 2012

Apple's iPad mini launched last week, and before iteven went on sale, enterprising fans has acquired one and ripped it apart.
However, today another site, IH, has gone one step further and worked out exactly how much the gadget costs Apple to make.
The firm says that the Wi-Fi 16GB base model costs roughly £117 ($188) for Apple to build - and it sells them for £269 ($329) each.

The iPad mini in pieces: US site IHS has added up the cost of the components, and found the base £269 model costs £117 to make

WHAT IT COSTS

The IHS study found the iPad mini's bigest costs were:
£50 ($80) - Display (with associated control chips)
£9.70 ($15.50) - Memory chips

The 32GB and 64GB models cost an additional £19 ($31) and £39 ($62) to build, respectively.
During its Q4 earnings call last week, Apple's CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that the iPad mini gross margin is 'significantly below' the rest of the products Apple is cranking out.
'We’re unwilling to cut corners in delivering the best experiences in the world,' Tim Cook added.
Apple also said it will be working to make iPad mini production more cost-effective in the future.
In its report, IHS further looked at the components that are being used to build the iPad mini. It was found that LG Display and AU Optronics are supplying roughly $80 in display components for the 7.9-inch tablet.
iFixit’s teardown released on Friday found that Samsung is also making display components, too.
Samsung was also found to be supplying the A5 chip in the iPad mini in IHS’ report.
However, IHS wasn't the first site to rip apart Apple's new mini.

More...

Ifixit.com got there before the gadget even went on sale
The £269 iPad mini goes on sale tomorrow, but the site has already posted a look inside the gadget set to become the must-have this Christmas.
Apple's iPad mini uses a display from South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, one of Apple's major suppliers and also its fiercest rival in the global mobile-device market that the two companies dominate.
Analysts say the Silicon Valley-based iPhone maker is trying to wean itself off its reliance on Samsung, as both giants are embroiled in a bitter international legal battle over mobile patents, for everything from microchips to displays.
In the first dismantling of the iPad mini, which will be sold in 34 countries beginning tomorrow, teardown and gadget-repair specialist company, iFixit, discovered a Samsung display driver chip, which indicated that Apple had picked the Korean firm's screen technology.
Like most producers of mobile hardware, the U.S. company typically employs several suppliers for the same components in its gadgets.
Apple has been known to use screens made by LG Display, for instance.

The chips (coloured) which reveal Samsung as the screen supplier for Apple's iPad mini

The ifixit site details the entire process of dismantling the iPad Mini

WHY DISASSEMBLE?

The iFixit.com site is well known for taking apart gadgets as soon as they are released.
It aims to help third parties find out how easy their new gadget are to repair, and each new gadget is given a 'repairability index'.
In the iPad mini's case, the index was low - meaning few parts can be repaired.
However, the firm did find that the Samsung manufactured screen can be easily repaired.

'Though the markings on the back of the LCD (display) don't turn up much information, the Samsung display driver IC (chip) reveals that Apple, once again, went with Samsung in its display manufacturing,' iFixit said, detailing the teardown on its website.
However, Apple does sometimes uses more than one supplier.
Supplying parts for Apple's iPhones and iPads - some of the industry's most popular and advanced gadgets - is considered a coup for chipmakers and other manufacturers.
The iPad mini also employs SK Hynix Inc flash memory, a Broadcom touch controller, and a number of microchips from Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc, according to iFixit, which acquired one early.
The 7.9-inch iPad mini marks the Apple's first foray into the smaller-tablet segment.
The company hopes to beat back incursions into its home territory - carved out with the original iPad's launch in 2010 - with 7-inch slates that are popular with consumers, even as it safeguards its lead in a larger tablet space that even deep-pocketed rivals like Samsung have found tough to penetrate.
It has won mostly positive reviews focused on its ability to wrap most of the functions of its full-sized iPad sibling into a smaller package, but critics pointed out the higher price tag of the iPad mini and an inferior display relative to those of rival products like Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and Google's Nexus 7.

The main motherboard of the iPad Mini, with Apple's a% processor visible in the centre. However, the site has so far failed to identify many of the other components in the gadget.

Online sales have run for a week, but Apple has not disclosed sales numbers so far. Friday's global sales rollout may offer a hint of demand for the gadget, which analysts expect to be strong.
Apple and Samsung are engaged in patent disputes across several countries, and Apple is believed to be seeking ways to rely less on Samsung. But the Asian tech powerhouse remains a key supplier for Apple, manufacturing its application processors and providing other components.
Samsung has stopped supplying displays for Apple's iPhone, and plays a reduced role in the full-sized iPad, according to DisplaySearch. Apple is also buying fewer memory chips from Samsung for the iPhone 5, relying more on Hynix and Elpida Memory.
Many analysts believe Apple will also gradually phase out Samsung as the main producer of the mobile micro-processor and shift business to rival supplier TSMC.

HOW EASY TO REPAIR IS THE IPAD MINI?

The site gave the iPad mini a repairability score od 2/10

iPad Mini Repairability: 2 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)

The LCD and glass are not fused together and can be replaced independently.
The battery is not soldered to the logic board or other components.
Teeny-tiny screws can be easily misplaced if you're not careful. Don't sneeze too hard while taking them off.
Copious amounts of adhesive hold many components in place -- front glass, logic board, battery, front camera, back camera, ribbon cables -- making repair extremely difficult.
The Lightning connector is soldered to the logic board, so don't bend its pins.
Hidden screws mean you'll need to be very diligent when trying to remove internal components.

source: iFixit.com