What it takes to make an iPhone: By the numbers

(Image credit: Ramin Talaie/Corbis)

last updated 8 January 2015

What exactly does it take to get an Apple product into your hands? This week, ABC's Nightline took viewers on an insider tour of China's Foxconn plants, where Apple phones and tablets are made — and where, says Joshua Topolsky at The Verge, the hours are controversially long, the wages are low, and the work is brutally monotonous. Here, a look inside the world of Apple manufacturing, by the numbers:

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Hours of labor it takes to manufacture the phone

325

Sets of hands it takes to make a single iPad

Days it takes to make a single iPad

$1.78

Hourly wage of new Foxconn employees, according to ABC's report

$2.18

Hourly wage of 75 percent of Foxconn's workforce

1.2 million

Workers employed by Foxconn

Typical age of Foxconn employees

The average shift, in hours, for Foxconn workers

Seconds it takes to complete a single step in the manufacturing process. "We are extremely tired, with tremendous pressure," one worker said. "We work faster even than the machines."

$17.50

Monthly rent Foxconn employees pay to secure sleeping space in a dorm room. Each room sleeps six to eight people.

$0.70

Price each Foxconn employee pays per meal

$12.50 to $30

Approximate cost of labor for a single iPhone

$199

Starting retail price for the iPhone 4S

$650

Approximate revenue each iPhone generates for Apple, according to Horace Dediu at Asymco

37 million

iPhones sold in the last quarter of 2011