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Business·1 min read

Apple's Storage Upgrade Margins Fall From 1,200% to 200%

Apple's surcharges for higher storage tiers were long one of its most lucrative revenue streams. The margin on them has now reportedly dropped from 1,200% to 200%.

A smartphone displayed beside a chart of falling profit margins, illustrating Apple's shrinking storage upgrade markups.
Image: Antyweb
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Apple's margin on storage upgrades in its smartphones has shrunk sharply. Figures now circulating put it at roughly 200%, compared with about 1,200% previously.

For years, the extra price Apple charges for higher storage variants has been one of the most profitable sources of income for the Cupertino company. Buyers who wanted more space than the base model offered paid a premium that far exceeded the actual cost of the additional memory, which made these upgrades a key contributor to profit on each device.

What the numbers show

A margin of 1,200% means the surcharge was worth many times the cost of the extra storage itself. A fall to 200% is still a substantial markup, but it is a far smaller cushion than before. The drop is one of the clearest signs that a long-standing pillar of Apple's smartphone profitability is eroding.

Why it matters

For customers, the figures show how large the gap between the price of storage upgrades and their underlying cost has been. For Apple, the storage ladder has long been a way to raise average selling prices without changing the design of the phone, so a shrinking margin there matters more than the percentages alone suggest.

The available material does not explain the reasons behind the decline or whether Apple plans to change its pricing. Those questions remain open.

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