“For a company that makes as much money as Apple, you might be surprised to learn that it spends far less on Research and Development (R&D) than many of its competitors, including bigwigs like Google, Microsoft, and Samsung,” Yoni Heisler reports for TUAW.
“That’s not to say Apple isn’t keen on R&D. On the contrary, Apple openly acknowledges in nearly every SEC filing that continued investment in R&D is critical to the company’s ability to compete and the future ‘development and sale of innovative products and technologie’,” Heisler reports. “With Apple’s 2013 books officially closed, I took a comprehensive look at Apple’s Form-K filings with the SEC in order to get a crisper picture as to how Apple’s R&D expenditures have changed over the last 19 years.”
“As a point of reference, Apple in 2013 spent $4.5 billion on R&D initiatives, a figure which Apple says was ‘driven by an increase in headcount,'” Heisler reports. ” Below is a chart mapping out Apple’s R&D expenditures from 1995 through 2013.”
Much more in the full article here.