The most profitable product in history
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Recently one of our listeners contacted us to say he heard a BBC correspondent describe the iPhone as the most profitable product in history. It was just an off-the-cuff comment but it got us thinking – could it be true? We asked listeners to get in touch with their suggestions. We take a look at a handful of them, from Viagra to popcorn in our quest for an answer. Could it be something more historical?
EU and trade: We take a look at the numbers on trade and at the UK’s relationship with the EU. Tim Harford interviews Chad P. Bown, a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Leicester City's Premier League success: At the beginning of the football season we explored the fallibility of predictions from experts and fans. As the season is ending, that is the only prediction we made correctly – that they are usually very wrong. Leicester City has had an astonishing success in winning the English Premier League. We take a look at the numbers behind the team’s performance.
Sexist Data Crisis: Are countries around the world failing to collect adequate details about their female citizens? Campaigners have argued we are missing data in areas that would help us understand women’s lives better, for example land and inheritance rights. We also explore how women’s work can be overlooked from labour surveys.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Tim Harford and you're listening to the longer Radio 4 edition of more or less first broadcast on Friday the 6th of May. |
| 0:09.0 | Hello and welcome to The Last in this series of More or less, your weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life. |
| 0:17.0 | This week some familiar topics, you know football, the EU, but we will also be talking about some numbers that nobody is gathering. |
| 0:25.0 | For too many countries, we lack reliable and regular data on even the basic facts about the lives of women and girls. |
| 0:34.0 | But first, let's talk about the challenge we set you last week. |
| 0:38.0 | After the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Catherine Jones reported that Apple's revenue had |
| 0:43.8 | fallen for the first time since 2003 and he added this. |
| 0:48.8 | By falls in the sales of what must be the world's most profitable product in history, the iPhone. |
| 0:54.0 | But is the iPhone really the most profitable product in history? |
| 0:59.4 | We asked you for your ideas about what might be more profitable and you got in touch in droves. |
| 1:04.6 | Does a bowl of soup or a cup of coffee count as a product? |
| 1:11.2 | Most cafes will regularly make 85% on this tasteful colored water. |
| 1:17.0 | Potato Crisps? |
| 1:20.0 | Software? Microsoft Office or other specialist packages? |
| 1:25.0 | Printer ink or horse seaman. |
| 1:27.0 | Very expensive per milliliter. |
| 1:29.0 | Hmm, well I think if you blended an iPhone into a liquid, it probably would be worth less per milliliter than either of those precious commodities. |
| 1:40.0 | Loyal listener David works with pharmaceutical companies. |
| 1:42.8 | Vaiagra probably has a gross margin well in excess of 85%. |
| 1:47.4 | The same goes for Loesek, Prozac and many, many others. |
| 1:50.8 | And then again, when you start deducting things like promotional and sales force costs, |
| 1:55.4 | general and admin costs, R&D, transfer costs, tax, buildings and other infrastructure, |
... |
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