Just in time for the holidays, Apple is selling some refurbed iPads through the Apple Store, with a 16GB wi-fi model going for $449, a 32GB model costing $549 and a 64GB model going for $649. The new ones each cost about $50 more, making a refurb not all that appealing.

I won’t be buying one. My knock on the iPads is pretty much the same as my knock on most Apple products: They’re incredibly high-priced for what you get, and they use clamped-down, closed-source software. For me, those two traits outweigh the genuinely great qualities Apple products often bring to the table.

Here’s a Business Week post from April that looks at the cost of manufacturing an iPad — which, because it’s a new product, is as high now as it will ever be.

The article estimates the cost of manufacturing a 16GB model at $260. Throw in, say, a rather generous 30 percent for shipping and advertising costs, and you get $338, meaning there’s about $160 in profit in a $500 device. That’s more than 47 percent profit, for those of you playing along at home.

Those numbers get worse as you add memory. Apple wants another $100 for a 32GB model, then another $100 on top of that for a 64GB model. Business Week estimated in April that it costs Apple about $30 per 16 GB, and I’ll bet that’s cheaper now.

So: Cost of manufacturing a 64GB iPad: Oh, about $350. Price: $700. Again, just for grins, we’ll give Apple 30 percent for shipping and advertising costs, and the total out-the-door cost would be $455. Profit: $245, or nearly 54 percent.

If the profit percentage got cut to 10 percent — still mighty high for a lot of electronics — a 16GB Apple would be under $300, and a 64GB model would be about $500.

You’re going to see some really high-quality Android tablets on the market in the next few months. I suspect they’re going to be a lot cheaper than their Apple counterparts. I’ll probably buy one. Now you know why.