Hot damn, what a hefty profit margin Apple and partner AT&T will enjoy. Based on iSuppli's preliminary functional Bill of Material (BoM) estimate, the Apple iPhone will cost $229.85 for hardware BoM and manufacturing cost and a $245.83 total expense for the 4GB model. The 8GB Apple iPhone will cost $264.85 hardware cost and a $280.83 total expense. Apple and AT&T will split the profit of 50.7% for the 4GB and 53.1% for the 8GB at the $599 retail price.
Apple iPhone to Generate 50 Percent Margin, According to iSuppli's Preliminary Analysis [iSuppli]
I believe that you’re assumption, that Apple and AT&T will split the profits, is incorrect.
It’s likely that Apple will be solely profiting from the iPhone hardware and AT&T will be reaping the profits from the cellular usage.
I don’t know how else the relationship would work…it could be that Apple gets a percentage of the cellular usage and AT&T will get a percentage of the profit?
why should they “swap” profit streams? Apple sticks to profit from h/w sales and AT&T has it’s cell usage profit. I don’t think Apple would actually want to get income from the calls.