“Apple turned the world upside down on a ‘shoe string’ R&D budget, ‘minuscule’ by comparison to Intel, Microsoft and Cisco, yet so muscular in its effectiveness that it was frightening, arguably the best bang for the buck anywhere anytime,” Stephen Rosenman writes for Seeking Alpha.
“If you put all of Research In Motion, Nokia, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Dell and MSFT R&D together, you still wouldn’t produce one hundredth the great stuff coming out of Apple,” Rosenman writes. “Apple develops market-dominating products on a bargain-basement R&D budget.”
Rosenman writes, “In fact, it’s getting better. Apple’s R&D as a percentage of sales has been dropping steadily, now equaling a tiny 2.24% sliver of revenue. Other technology companies allot a far greater share of their sales to R&D with the exception of HP (which has given up its innovative culture) and Dell (also not a powerhouse of creativity).”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Double07” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple’s revenues have grown nearly 3 times faster than its operating expenses since 2003 – December 14, 2010
Apple uses cash wisely; Microsoft, not so much – June 1, 2010
Microsoft outspends Apple 9 to 1 in R&D, but what does Microsoft have to show for it? – October 27, 2008
Is this from ‘The Way Back Machine?’
Someone used Dell, innovative, powerhouse and creativity in a sentence.
Wow.
And *not*
Based on revenue, that 2.24% is worth $2.5 Billion! That’s not bad for a company that is incredibly well-focused.
“Other technology companies allot a far greater share of their sales to R&D with the exception of HP (which has given up its innovative culture) and Dell (also not a powerhouse of creativity).”
HP, like AT&T and Xerox, once ran basic research labs, now all but a shadow of their former selves. One retired physicist I met at an adult ed class kept only his Agilent stock (spun off by HP) and sold HP as, in his mind, that’s where HP’s innovation and engineering culture still survived. Dell’s “innovation” was limited to lean manufacturing and marketing. They invented nothing.
Dell’s R&D department is made of up accountants.
Actually, back in the day, Dell’s R&D was focused on manufacturing, and they were able to produce their machines much more cost-effectively than their competitors could.
-jcr
In this industry, invention is the mother of all necessities.
Hey, MacDailyNews, can you do something about the horrid double-underline ads when you quote from outside sources? They drive me crazy.
Thanks.
+100