Piper: AT&T iPhone costs suggest greater profit
updated 03:20 pm EDT, Tue July 1, 2008
Piper on AT&T iPhone costs
Earlier estimates for the ASP (average selling price) of the iPhone 3G were too low, write analysts with Piper Jaffray. Following the announcement of AT&T's new iPhone plans, under which people can buy unsubsidized iPhones for $599 and $699, Piper admits that its earlier prediction of a $425 ASP was likely wrong. This is despite the fact that AT&T is believed to be drastically marking up the iPhone, in theory exaggerating Apple's revenue potential.
Using the older ASP, AT&T would have been charging a 50 percent markup on the contract-free device. Piper now believes that the markup is substantially lower, and Apple may be taking home an ASP of as much as $500. If this is true, it could add 8 percent to predicted CY09 revenue, working on an assumption of 45 million in unit shipments.
Piper further notes that if AT&T's markup is approximately 30 percent, it would still be higher than that Apple's typical number, which hovers around 10 percent for Macs and iPods.
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Joined: Aug 2001
What????
You can buy the iPhone unlocked and untied to a plan??? Then what the h*** is everyone complaining about how AT&T is s******* them?
And not that I follow what any of these numbers are supposed to mean (so is the average selling price the amount Apple is supposed to get, or the amount that it will sell for on average at stores?), but can you really trust analysts who use the words "believe", "may be" and "if"?