These are not pennies at scale. These are 9-10 figure costs at scale.
Just using the iPhone 15 Max as an example [0], your BoM is around $550-650 (including labor), but sells for $1,200.
50% margins are not great, especially because the the BoM grew from $400-500 for the iPhone 14 Max (Edit: "The parts costs for the Max series ranged between $400 and $450 during the 2018 to 2021 period", not iPhone 14), which also sold for $1,200.
A 50% decrease in margins on the flagship phone is a massive decrease in margins, and it's most likely similar across all Apple SKUs.
Every single component if you're in the hardware space costs money and overhead to manage, and supply chain issues can push back releases.
This is why companies are moving towards digital displays. It's the same principle why EVs can be more reliable than ICE vehicles due to less parts
As an (I presume) Engineer drill the following mantra into your head: MARGINS, MARGINS, MARGINS.
This is what gives you your paycheck in the environment we are in today.
> if 3nm chip manufacturing receives so much interest -- why not a fraction of that investment in engineering more durable, lasting, and cheap physical components too.
3nm chip manufacturing is expensive and costs money. That money needs to come from somewhere. Turns out, a portion of that budget came from the budget for buttons.
[0] - https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/iPhone-15-teardo...