You all know that Apple sells iDevices in several forms, with several options in terms of data storage capacity, and the difference between those versions is 100$/€, depending on the country. If you've ever wondered how much Apple pays for each GB of space in its NAND flash memories, then I'll tell you that That space costs $0.42, but Apple sells it to users for $6.25. In practice, Apple obtains a gross margin of 93% in the case of RAM sales, but here we are only talking about the USA, because if we take into account the dollar-euro parity, then that profit easily exceeds 100% when iPhones are sold in Europe.
We were surprised to see Apple continue to charge $100 for each incremental 16GB of NAND, given that AMZN is charging $50 (Kindle Fire HD 7" and Kindle Fire HD 9" LTE) to $70 (Kindle Fire HD 9" WiFi) for each 16GB of NAND. We estimate that Apple is able to procure NAND flash for ~$0.42 per GB (at market prices or better), while reselling for $6.25 per GB (calculated as $100 for each 16GB of step-up). This implies a favorable 93% gross margin on NAND.
Other manufacturers of mobile terminals take advantage of users in almost the same way, but ask for halved prices to offer the products in attractive promotions. Apple can afford to ask more because its iDevices are extremely sought after, and when it offers a promotion somewhere, it doesn't do it by losing money on the sale of the devices. In conclusion, Apple, like other manufacturers, demands a much higher price for NAND memories in iDevices, but unlike others, its prices are double.
