I wouldn't call them 'random' guesses as they seem to be based on actual information to some degree. I also wouldn't call the end number pointless, it just does

I wouldn't call them 'random' guesses as they seem to be based on actual information to some degree. I also wouldn't call the end number pointless, it just doesn't mean what people who only read the headline might assume it means. I believe the article does a pretty good job explaining the caveats about other costs which are not taken into account. And the numbers are still useful for comparing against other product launches by apple. R&D for products is generally left out of the production cost, as it is a fixed price regardless of the number of units they produce, and therefore has no unit price, and is simply recouped over time (hopefully). Over all its an interesting article I think, and while reading it I felt they were doing adequate cautioning of the reader to not go 'OMG Apple is gauging us even more' which the number really has no relevance to as you point out, however it does not mean the number is misleading or pointless.