Eli5 Why is it that a new television costs about 1000 dollars, it has android, a chipset, wifi etc, while a phone wich is much smaller, but has also a chipset etc, also costs 1000 dollars ?

Question

Eli5 Why is it that a new television costs about 1000 dollars, it has android, a chipset, wifi etc, while a phone wich is much smaller, but has also a chipset etc, also costs 1000 dollars ?

In: Technology

Answer 1

The bill of materials for the iPhone 12, is supposedly around $406

https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_12_pro_bom_come_up_to_406-news-46442.php

It sells for more than double that, but they still have to pay for R&D, marketing, shipping, warranty, etc. The most expensive components are the cellular modem, display, and processor. A tv won’t have a cellular modem, and it’s processor is probably not going to be top of the line (most people will just use it to watch videos, which many lower end processors will do just fine with hw acceleration built in). Tv also won’t have cameras, battery, waterproofing, etc.

I’m not sure how much the display itself would typically cost in a $1000 tv, it’s certainly bigger than the one in the phone but not necessarily higher resolution.

Edit:
That being said if you look at mid or lower end / last years model you can get tvs and phones a lot cheaper. This could be due to lack of demand, stores wanting to get rid of unsold stock, production costs going down with practice (higher yields), and probably other factors as well.