A customer with an Apple iPhone

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. sells its new iPhone handsets at more than double production costs, according to estimates by ISuppli Corp., a technology industry research firm.

The most expensive model, which retails for $599, has component and manufacturing costs of $265.83, El Segundo, California-based ISuppli said today on its Web site. Excluding costs for logistics and royalties, Apple generates margins exceeding 55 percent, the report said. Jill Tan, a spokeswoman for Apple in Hong Kong, declined to comment on the report.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. is the biggest supplier, accounting for 30.5 percent of component costs, by making the memory chips and processors, according to ISuppli. Infineon Technologies AG, Wolfson Microelectronics Plc, Balda AG and National Semiconductor Corp. also make parts, ISuppli said.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said shoppers bought as many as 700,000 iPhones in the product's opening weekend, double the brokerage's earlier projections. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster pegged sales at about 500,000, more than twice his original 200,000 estimate.

Apple will probably sell 4.5 million iPhones this year and more than 30 million units by 2011, according to ISuppli. Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said in January that the Cupertino, California-based company will sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, capturing 1 percent of total handset sales worldwide.

By comparison, Nokia Oyj, the world's largest mobile-phone maker, said in April it shipped 91.1 million units in the first quarter.

Shares of Apple rose $1.41, or 1.2 percent, to $122.67 at 10:03 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. They have climbed 43 percent this year before today.

The following is a table listing some of the major suppliers for the 8-gigabyte iPhone, the components and their estimated costs, according to ISuppli's report. The 4-gigabyte model retails for $499 each.

Company                          Components          Total Costs
Infineon                         Digital baseband
                                 Radio Transceiver
                                 Power Management      $15.25
National Semiconductor           Display/graphics
                                 connecting chip        $1.50
Balda AG                         Touch screen module   $27.00
Epson/Sharp/Toshiba Matsushita   Touch screen display  $24.50
Samsung Electronics              Applications processor
                                 NAND flash memory
                                 DRAM chip             $76.25
Wolfson Microelectronics Plc     Audio codec              N/A
CSR Plc                          Bluetooth chip         $1.90
Marvell Technology Group Ltd.    Wi-Fi chip             $6.00
Total Bill of Materials                               $265.83
N/A: Not Available

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Cho in Seoul at kcho2@bloomberg.net