sigh $14 in components for a $100 product seems like a really tight margin and not exploitation to me. The tooling chain for these things (injection molding, etc.) is really expensive.
Not that these are a great product, but I don't see them outright ripping anyone off.
The quote from the article is actually "...it costs Beats a mere $14 to make according to some experts." I'm assuming they factored the tooling costs into the cost of making these.
At the scales Beats is operating the tooling chain costs, while initially high, get distributed over millions of units.
No, I interpret that as being Beats paying $14 for them from the OEM (the real manufacturer), and the manufacturer is still making a profit at that price.
That price is about right for OEM price of this style of headphone, see e.g.
That bit of the article is not particularly detailed, but it sounds like the $14 would include the molds and everything else. It doesn't say "$14 in components", it says "it costs Beats a mere $14 to make".
$14 might include the tooling chain - unless I read the article wrong. Even if it doesn't the injection molding, etc in China will be nothing after the first few thousand units and even less after millions of units shipped.
Not that these are a great product, but I don't see them outright ripping anyone off.