“To say that Apple had a stellar holiday quarter would be an understatement. For the quarter gone by, Apple recorded just over $18 billion in profits, enough to make it the most profitable quarter in corporate history,” Yoni Heisler reports for TUAW.
“Lest anyone think Apple is easing up on the throttle, the company remains as committed to innovative endeavors as ever,” Heisler reports. “Case in point: the company during its most recent quarter spent more on research and development (R&D) than ever before.”
“In their quarterly earnings report, Apple relayed that it spent $1.895 billion on R&D, up from $1.3 billion during the same quarter a year-ago,” Heisler reports. “Apple’s previous high for R&D expenses clocked in at $1.6 billion during the company’s June quarter.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Wouldn’t be incredible to get a glimpse at what they have in the pipeline a year from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now.
Watch the Apple patents. They give a good idea of what’s coming down the pipes.
The number and quality of patents coming out of R&D are considered a better measure of their activity than their spending. Ask Samsung. Oops.
…way to go Timmy, finance the fertilizer for the next crop of success.
Can’t wait to see the 3D printer that uses liquidmetal.
Last year, it was more about things like trying to start sapphire production. Apple invested $1 billion in that.
That was not research. That was ramping production. Research is new products. There is a difference.
The Apple new business segment criteria …
1) the target market has no dominant player
2) the current market players are financially precarious
3) meaningful IP will isolate the market for 5 years
That was what put them on top, Jobs commitment to R&D; I remember an excellent article back in the day when the iPod was starting to kick ass, and the economy was in the crapper, and Jobs saying something to the effect that they were going to innovate their way through tough times, and boy did they ever.
Wow! That’s a lot of money towards R&D. I can’t begin to guess what Apple has up its sleeve, time will tell. I’m sure it’ll blow our socks off in good old Apple fashion.
How cool it would be to work at Apple doing R&D. Working with some of brightest, creative minds in the industry.
$1.895 billion dollars must be just getting flushed down the toilet. Where is the innovation?
Where are our looney Wifi balloons that crash?
Where are our fugly intrusive glasses?
Where are the 25Mph driverless clown cars?
Where are the vapourware 3D headsets.
I don’t want products, I want futuristic smoke & mirror shows.
Apple’s way isn’t throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks. That approach is wasteful, and more often, doesn’t result in viable products.
Apple takes a more Edison type of approach. Find a.need, find something practical, keep working on it until it’s near perfect, then announce it. Apple isn’t known for vaporware. Leave that for the vaporware masters, Microsoft and Google.
Dollar for dollar, Apple gets more for the money it spends on R&D because they doesn’t pursue trivial pursuits that waste scads of cash.
Apple innovates, the others salivate. Of the three companies, which would you want to work at?
You obviously lack the ability to detect sarcasm.
Your real name isn’t Sheldon by any chance is it?
And don’t forget those barges off San Francisco harbour and the glucose level reading contact lenses 😂