Samsungs Galaxy S5 Costs About $256 to Build

tip: Read the report. Where it literally says that Samsung's internal units sell to one another and that's where they pulled the pricing from.

 

GAAP dictates when preparing consolidated financials, all profit recorded from the sales to or from subsidiaries, downstream or upstream sales, are to be removed; commonly refered to as eleimination entries. The elimination entries get even more complicated if the subsidiary is not 100% owned. Reason being that the transactions are considered just a transfer/exchange of assets. So if a company can supply themselves cheaper than a competitor, it would be beneficial for them to do so. It's a typical "What if?" scenario.

 

Indeed, not reading this anywhere.

Though they would be quite capable of it, sure of that, unlike some other companies.

 

These things are like cars. You're often better off (financially) buying slightly used. I also find that after the initial wow factor of a new smartphone wears off, I just end up primarily using it as a phone and much of the gaming/app capabilities get very little use from then on.

If people want to spend $500-$700 on a phone every two years, good for them. I think that's nuts for the average consumer. Last year, I overspent on my current phone (Galaxy S3 for $400) but I have no intentions of replacing it unless it dies. It was only bought to replace my unreliable older phone.

I may get a GS5 two years from now, when these things will be selling for ~$50-$100 on craigslist (as the ~$600 phones from two years ago are now). I bought someone's old, high-end smartphone (HTC Evo 3D) last summer to use in my car (so I wouldn't be using my GS3). As a second useful life, high-end smartphones make good MP3 players and GPS units.

 

a galaxy s5 2 years from now won't be "slightly used".

 

2 years from now is when I may be interested in getting one (at a reasonable price). For "slightly used" I'm meaning within 6 months (when they can be purchased for ~50%-60% of the cost brand new). Many people manage to keep from abusing expensive mobile devices in the first few months (though I personally know some of the exceptions who break everything).

 

They get monthly salary, which is not as much as you think. Factories which mades them in mass production get cents, or at least workers. PCB designers, phone designers, get more, programmers get a little bit less than designers. But that is so tiny part compared those who sits on the top. Samsung is huge company, they have research labs, factories, they produce a lot of stuff. But i put that aside for this topic.

 

Apparently there's a Samsung building on fire atm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T0JKd6eheA

.. like 24 or so hours ago.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_time_between_failures

There was another MT... name but I forgot about it :nerd:

 

Warranties are essentially calculated based on risk analysis. So much percentage of phones are estimated to fail within a given time frame. The appropriate replacement and/or repair cost is then accrued. This is so for every product purchased. We all pay for the other person requiring warranty work to a small percentage. If companies were not good at estimating warranty costs, they would stand a chance of going bankrupt.

 

Don't get the phone with the contract because you will end up paying more. Get the phone and the contract separately.

 

that depends entirely on which part of world you live in.

 

And it depends on the contract itself! You COULD end up paying more for the phone over a yearly period.

Example, paying £45+ a month means £540 per year. Most contracts are 18 months or more meaning you are paying well over the value of the phone...

 

In the US, I don't think a contract deal exists which is a better bargain for a phone purchase than non-contract. Under contract, people are basically paying off a high interest loan (60%-150% interest) to get a new phone every two years. The devices are marketed as "free upgrades" to your contract which seems underhanded. Seems less and less people are getting duped into this scheme these days. Good to hear this isn't an International con-game.

 

I ordered S5 on contract I will end up paying a bit less then buying it instantly not sim locked or anything.

 

Oh and I'd like to point out that tablets with the same parts as these phones but with significantly larger screens often go for $200. So it's hilarious that anyone thinks the phone version somehow actually costs $250+ to build while the tablet version makes them profit when sold at $200.

 

Tablets don't have the same thermal and size requirements of a phone. There is a ton more engineering and testing going on with a phone. Not to mention that there are multiple variants of SOC packages for different size devices. Large ones are far less costly.

It's not comparable.