Apple Inc. is selling its new iPhone handsets at more than double production costs, according technology industry researcher ISuppli Corp.’s estimates. Bloomberg News reported that the most expansive model, which is selling for $599, has component and manufacturing costs of $265.83.

South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. is the largest supplier, providing memory chips and processors that account for 30.5 percent of the total component cost.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates people purchased as many as 700,000 iPhones in its opening weekend and Piper Jaffray believes about 500,000 were sold. Both are at least double the companies’ original predictions. ISuppli predicts Apple will sell 4.5 million iPhones this year and more than 30 million by 2011. The company hopes to capture 1 percent of total handset sales worldwide through next year, which would equate to 10 million iPhones being sold.