The iPad Air 2 costs just $1 more than the iPad Air 1 for Apple to make

This year’s iPad update was, umm, modest, to say the least. The new tablet didn’t really have all that much new – aside from a slightly faster processor and TouchID, all Apple has done is sandpaper down the case another millimetre. Which is perhaps why this news didn’t come as much of a shock.

According to Recode, Research firm IHS has been tearing down the new device and pricing up the individual parts to work out how much each would cost to make – and the conclusion is that the lowest-spec iPad Air 2 (wifi only, 16GB) costs $275 to build – which goes on to sell for $499. The Register reckons this compares to $274 for the original iPad Air.

So perhaps it isn’t surprising that the two models are very similar. What is interesting though, is that examining the components it seems that Apple is moving as much chip manufacturing as it can to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp because the other company that makes them is, umm, Samsung.