“Apple spent $3.4 billion in research and development during its 2012 fiscal year, up $1 billion from 2011,” Darrell Etherington reports for TechCrunch.
“The new R&D spending total for the year is… an increase that’s much larger than at any time in the company’s past,” Etherington reports. “Between 2011 and 2010, for instance, R&D spend rose only $600,000, and between 2010 and 2009, grew by only $500,000.”
Etherington reports, “The huge uptick in R&D spending could… mean Apple has a lot more in new products coming next year, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Read more in the full article here.
Good to hear, because no doubt Google’s Siri killer has opened a lot of eyes.
Hopefully the money went I part at least towards the new Lithium ion with graphite polymer anode battery technology which will triple the energy density. Smaller batteries with longer lives. Can’t wait. Siri? More of that too….along with everything billions can buy.
They should bill Samsung for half of it…oh wait! They did!
And they came up with Apple Maps!
Yeah, give yourself a pat on the back for that one Gomer.
Already done bonehead.
So Apple Maps has flaws, which is to be expected, for a first attempt at such a huge project. Google Maps also has flaws, and how long, exactly, has Google been running it?
Satellite view a case in point; there are areas in Apple Maps that are low-res, including where I live, but a few miles away there are features shown, including a house and a crop formation, that weren’t there a year ago. Google Maps doesn’t show anything newer than eight years ago.
Guess, Jobs was a billion dollar R&D man himself. Likely a lot, lot more; time will tell.
Siri and Maps, two of Apple’s biggest undertakings in terms of people/R&D.
Apple has always spent less than other companies such as MS but their R&D yielded far greater results. Let’s hope that continues and they’re just not getting sloppy and throwing money at problems. I can’t imagine that would happen until all of the old regime is retired. They’ve always worked smarter not just harder.
I think they’re off by a factor of 1000 – $600 000 000, not $600 000,
Making LiquidMetal cost effective for the next generation of ultra-thin computers will cost some serious cash. But watch out when they get there, as no one else will be able to do the same thinness — plastic won’t cut it, neither will aluminum.
Television. The networks have been warned: Apple will be an online television supplier. They could even buy whole series like Modern Family and sell them through the iVideo store with worldwide distribution rights and languages. France, the UK and Germany wouldn’t have to wait a year to see what Americans see. Personally, I can’t wait.