With its huge market size and economies of scale, Apple has extremely high bargaining power in the supply chain. The latest news shows that Apple also has amazing profit margins in its after-sales battery replacement business. In a post discussing the shortcomings of silicon-carbon batteries, Schrödinger shared a message,The 5088mAh battery installed on the iPhone 17 Pro Max costs Apple only US$12 (approximately RMB 83), while the 6000mAh silicon-carbon battery with higher energy density but smaller size costs about US$18.
However, this cost advantage has not benefited consumers.According to Apple’s official maintenance price, the battery replacement cost of iPhone 17 Pro Max is as high as US$119 (approximately RMB 825).In China, the price is 969 yuan.
If the cost estimate is accurate, that means Apple made a difference of nearly $100 on each battery replacement, a profit margin of 89%.
Even taking into account the additional expenses caused by warehousing, logistics and scattered maintenance, such an exaggerated price increase still cannot conceal the nature of huge profits.
