If you were one of those who recently got their hands on Apple's new iPhone model, you might be surprised to find out that its actual manufacturing costs are a lot lower than you might think. Researching firm iSuppli released a comprehensive teardown analysis of the components and production costs for the iPhone 3G, summing up the total to a mere US$ 174.33. Find out more in our full article after the jump.

Apple's iPhone is a commercial success but if the magnitude of that success escapes you, here's a little hint: It has set a new record for AT&T sales by selling more phones than the Motorola RAZR did in a month.

In addition to this, the demand for the iPhone doesn't seem to be slowing down with iPhones going on eBay from US$ 705 to a whopping US$ 12,500.

Throughout all this, Apple has been making a killing. Industry researcher ISuppli Corp. declared that Apple is selling the iPhone for more than double its manufacturing costs. Thus they have profit margins of over 55 percent, excluding logistics and royalties.

That's just an insane amount of money moving into the company, and it shows. As a testament to that, Apple shares soared by US$ 5.91 to US$ 127.17 or 4.9 percent in NASDAQ Stock Market trading.

However, it should also be noted that AT&T shares dropped by US$ 35 cents, which is rather peculiar considering AT&T has sold out of the phone in almost all its 1,800 stores. It may have something to do with the EDGE network crashing for a short time, but this has not been confirmed by any of our financial analysts.

So it looks like the iPhone is off to a good start, it should be noted that Apple isn't expecting to be making a large profit now but expects it to come over a span of two years. Is this a sign of things to come? If you'd care to read more on this, click on our read link.

Although it may not be apparent, Apple isn't reeling in major profits on any of the Apple TV units they sell. Literally. According to Business Week, research firm iSuppli purchased a unit for US$ 299 and took it apart piece by piece. What they found was that the seemingly pricey Apple TV tag wasn't a Benjamin apart from the total of its parts.

An Apple TV's parts, when broken down and arranged quite neatly, has been found to cost no more than US$ 237 all in all. That's just US$ 62 from the retail price tag (a 20% gross profit margin), although it doesn't include administrative, marketing and production costs.

That's a big leap from most of Apple's 50% gross profit margins for products not related to its consumer computer solutions. Analyst Andrew Rassweiler of iSuppli remarked, "This is certainly a departure for Apple, or at least it's approaching a departure."

"We made some very aggressive assumptions with this device, and by that I mean we assumed low prices on the components," added Rassweiler. When Apple's Steve Jobs said that the Apple TV is a hobby, he probably wasn't joking at all. It may have been more convincing, though, if there were tears.