“In recent years, Apple Inc. has quietly put together a global network of small research and development labs, from the French Alps to New Zealand,” Alex Webb reports for Bloomberg.
“Nothing unusual about that for a company that spends $11 billion a year on R&D,” Webb reports. “Look a little closer, however, and you’ll notice that many of these labs are located near companies with a strong record in mapping, augmented reality and other areas Apple is pushing into. In several cases, these companies lost employees to Apple not long after the iPhone maker came to town.”
“Berlin: In early 2016, Apple opened an office in the German capital, located not two miles from HERE, a maps company that Nokia Oyj sold to a consortium of German carmakers in 2015. Today, Apple’s lab is mostly staffed by former HERE software engineers,” Webb reports. “Wellington: Since the beginning of last year, Apple has quietly hired a handful of engineers from Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital, the visual effects house behind The Lord of the Rings, Avatar and The Planet of the Apes. The team is part of the augmented reality division Apple created in 2016 to develop smart glasses that may ultimately supplant the iPhone, according to a person familiar with the operation.”
Many more examples in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you don’t want to lose your valuable employees, make sure they’ll happy and well-compensated regardless of, but also especially where Apple R&D labs are located.