Apple's £269 iPad Mini costs just £117 to make

Apple's new iPad Mini costs just £117 to make, despite its £269 price tag, according to analysts IHS iSuppli.

The company, which specialises in breakdowns of the costs of electronics, claims that the machine costs £117 to build after analysing the components inside.

The iPad Mini's display is made by LG and AU Optronics - and, despite the bitter legal battle between the companies, its A5 processor is still made by Samsung.

Rival machines such as Amazon's Kindle Fire cost as little as just £129. Google's Nexus 7 is £159.

[Related: Apple sells three million iPads on launch weekend]

Apple's iPad Mini launched worldwide on November 2.

The analyst report - reported by blog AllThingsD - would mean that Apple's gross profit margin on the gadget is 43%.

Apple today revealed that three million iPads had sold at the weekend - but declined to break down the figures into its full-size iPad and the new Mini model.

The launch saw few of the queues normally associated with Apple's products, with people in the UK and many other territories able to buy iPad Mini without queueing.

The tablet has a 7.9-inch screen and weighs half as much as the larger iPad, which it resembles.

Unlike the larger gadget, though, it does not have Apple's hi-def 'Retina' screen.

The iPad mini has two cameras, a dual-core A5 processor and 10-hour battery life.

It comes in both Wi-Fi only versions and models with LTE wireless connectivity.