You can easily hop onto the Google machine and find a long list of all the cool things your phone can do.  However, what isn’t often thought about is the behind the scenes of the phone itself. How is it made? Where is it made? How much does it cost to make? Let’s break down the journey your iPhone 5 takes, starting as a little computer chip and finding its way to your pocket.

iPhone is a true American product because its engineering and design are born out of the ingenuity and skill of American developers and industrial designers in Cupertino, California, Apple’s headquarters. The battle plan to innovate and shake the smartphone industry all began here.

Beyond the planning stage, iPhone 5 is still being made in America. Its brain, the A6 chip, is manufactured by a semiconductor company based in the US, possibly an Intel or IBM plant or even a Samsung American subsidiary in Austin, Texas.  The phone may be made from different countries, but it thinks as an American like you and me.

The software is also designed locally and a $500-million data center was even built in North Carolina. The radio frequency part is made by Ohio-based Triquint, the audio chip by Cirrus Logic, a Texan company, and the controller chips by California-based PMC Sierra and Broadcom Corp. Evidently, the specialized parts and design are American, making the iPhone a first-rate, high edge product. Interestingly, the glass is developed and manufactured by a Corning plant in Kentucky, although the bulk of manufacturing has since been shipped out to the company’s plants in Japan and Taiwan.

All of this talk about the work Apple goes through, don’t you wonder what they are getting out of it? Well based on UBM techinsights research, in total it costs apple $167.50 to produce 1 iPhone 5. And the phone (when it first came out) retailed for 300$. Therefore, every  iPhone sold is a $132.50 profit for Apple. While that might not seem like a lot, apple sold a total of 39 million iPhones within the first 100 days of its launch. It adds up.

In conclusion, this process and the reliability of Apple products is why the brand continues to break records and sell their innovative products to millions.