iPhone 15 Pro Max price increase linked to enhanced camera system

New Delhi: The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s total bill of materials (BoM) cost cost is $37.7 higher than that of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, a report showed on Thursday.

The total BoM cost to produce an 8GB+256GB iPhone 15 Pro Max comes to $37.7 or 8 per cent higher than that for the 6GB+256GB iPhone 14 Pro Max launched last year, according to Counterpoint Research.

Share of Apple’s self-designed components has increased to 25 per cent of the total BoM cost, up from 22 per cent in the iPhone 14 Pro Max last year.

“With an increase of $100 in the starting retail price, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is expected to give Apple more profit as it has the highest gross margin in the iPhone 15 family, despite being the costliest model,” the report mentioned.

Apple’s new-generation mobile platform, the A17 Pro, uses TSMC’s most advanced 3nm fabrication technology and packs more than 19 billion transistors in a die, 18 per cent more than that of the A16 Bionic.

The SoC upgrade has resulted in a cost increase of around $30 compared with the A16.

Another notable upgrade is the 5x telephoto camera featuring an equivalent 120mm focal length.

The overall cost of the camera system in the iPhone 15 Pro Max is 34 per cent costlier than that of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the findings showed.

Apple has adopted a titanium alloy in the iPhone 15 Pro Max casing frame, which has reduced the device’s weight by around 20 g, making it the lightest Pro Max model ever.

The cost of the new casing in the iPhone 15 Pro Max is 18 per cent higher than that of the 14 Pro Max.

However, memory and display are among the areas where cost has fallen.

Apple has upgraded the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s DRAM to 8GB, which is 2GB higher than that of its predecessor.

However, the global memory market was in a downtrend from Q4 2022 to Q3 2023, both DRAM and NAND flash prices have decreased by more than 30 per cent.

This has worked in favor of Apple, helping it offset some of the other cost increases as the contribution of memory chips dropped by 34 per cent compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

The display price is also in a downtrend. Apart from Samsung Display, LG Display has also started supplying iPhone LTPO displays.

“This has contributed to a reduction in display costs by 4 per cent in the iPhone 15 Pro Max compared to that of the iPhone 14 Pro Max,” said the report.

“Apple has grown to a level where it has significant control over design, innovation, scalability, costs and profits of the entire iPhone and the other products in its portfolio,” the report said.