Apple's research & development costs ballooned 32% in 2013 to $4.5B

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  • Reply 21 of 79
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post



    iWatch, iTV, battery improvements etc.



    Apple needs to improve their speakers on all their products. This is crucially important to me. The new iMac sounds far worst than the old model, but is thinner! Is that the right trade off on an iMac? I don't think so.

     

    It would be nice but it will never happen. The answer...

    http://store.apple.com/us/mac/mac-accessories/audio-speakers#!

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  • Reply 22 of 79
    Originally Posted by helicopterben View Post

    Apple Board seriously need to think about the amount of money Apple will be making in couple of years and invest them wisely and actively. They seem so slow in service sector growth and buyouts of some decent size market cap company which creates regular free cash flows!

     

    Or they can keep doing what they’re doing and be one of the few companies that acts intelligently. What is people’s problem that living on the verge of bankruptcy (or permanently in debt) is now something desirable?! The government is not an aspiration.

     
    Bottom line : Hardware business will not work forever! Competitors will copy, New companies will emerge!

     

    Been working for THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS. I’m pretty darn sure it’s going to keep working just fine.

     

    Get aggressive in Service business like Apple Payments, Entertainment like Netflix, Data Provider (use VOIP) (Kick out T, VZ and get rid of phone minutes), Cable business (iTV), iSearch.


     

    Why would they want a bank? Why would they want to become a telecom? Why would they want a search engine? Why would they want archaic cable?

     

     Do anything but do it


     

    Please don’t own Apple stock.

     

    Originally Posted by paxman View Post

    It would be nice but it will never happen. The answer...

    http://store.apple.com/us/mac/mac-accessories/audio-speakers#!


     

    But they tried that; nobody wanted it.

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  • Reply 23 of 79
    bananaman wrote: »
    co-incedentally samsungs R&D costs increased by 32% too.
    it's 4.509 billion.
    I think the extra 0.009 billion is for the fake R&D at samsung spending their time playing candy crush and making false rumours about apple.

    Could be an indicator of the plummeting value of the dollar?
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  • Reply 24 of 79
    bananaman wrote: »
    iCar will also be an electric car which can go 500 miles per full charge(lolwut)

    After which you'll sell it, to upgrade to iCar Retina.

    Also, the hood is glued shut, as are the doors.
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  • Reply 25 of 79
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by helicopterben View Post

    Bottom line : Hardware business will not work forever! Competitors will copy, New companies will emerge!

    Get aggressive in Service business like Apple Payments, Entertainment like Netflix, Data Provider (use VOIP) (Kick out T, VZ and get rid of phone minutes), Cable business (iTV), iSearch. Do anything but do it :p  Kick out the lazy board members like GORE! Get in guys like Elon Musk!


    Rarely do we see people that miss the point to this extent. :no:

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  • Reply 26 of 79
    simtubsimtub Posts: 277member
    An Apple/Tesla collab would be interesting
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  • Reply 27 of 79
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Chungst View Post



    The shareholders of record is on page 22 of the annual report.



    The low number reflect ownership by hedge funds, mutual funds, etc. It is also possible the stock is held in street name as opposed to the account-holder's name.

    this.   Note that traders have to be holding the stock at the close of markets to be of record  (lots of people trade AAPL stock, few people hold it long enough to matter to Apple).  And of those that do hold it, most hold it through their broker ("street name").  Unless you get a letter directly from Apple and not through your brokerage , your stock ownership is proxied.

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  • Reply 28 of 79
    Originally Posted by vaporland View Post

    Also, the hood is glued shut, as are the doors.

     

    At least have a matching analogy. <img class=" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />



    The hood is screwed down (eight circular screws, having their own special tool), the battery is glued in, and the engines are soldered to the wheel housings.

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  • Reply 29 of 79
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member

    Quote:


    Originally Posted by jungmark View Post



    Pfft. Apple still not spending enough in R&D!! They have a $150 bn in the bank.i guess Cook really wants to swim in a vault of gold coins. /s

    Do people still get Scrooge McDuck references?  I hope so.... ...anyway....



    Given:



    1. The many small niggles that persist and bedevil users over multiple OS releases that more people assigned to stamp them out could solve...



    2. Profitable niches the company could be in already (like an additional larger screen phone - 10% of the mobile market)...



    3. The degree of "non-static" competition they face in nearly every market and space they play in....

     

    4. Their (mostly) "our (non-interoperable) solution" mentality, although they know how to implement interoperability in ways that redound to their benefit (iTunes for Windows was my first "Apple experience" and led to my first Mac) that hobbles adoption rates, e.g., I don't live in an all Apple universe of friends, and I don't keep tabs on what devices they use, which means I see no reason to adopt iMessage or think in a Facetime-centric way....



    ...nor can most of my correspondents even view, let alone open .pages files (new or old), so irrelevant to me if it's a better program than Word...



    And for other reasons...



    I whole-heartedly agree.



    I also see reasons for their cash hoard, e.g., leverage over gaining access to advanced component supplies, foreign/domestic tax issues and just plain prudence (to a degree), however, part of what that does is simply attract the Carl Icahns of the world....



    ...and I don't want a huge non-strategic stock buyback, rather an Apple that's pedal to the metal on forging ahead in operations, industrial design, services (where they've had decades of sub-par attempts), with even more "spit and polish"... ...and even more driven by R&D than today.

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  • Reply 30 of 79
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by brutus009 View Post

     

     

    Are you honestly buying an iMac for its speakers? That's ridiculous. Aesthetics are way more important than acoustics for an Apple desktop.


    Also, people seem to forget that the smaller a product is the a) less material is used b) less weight/volume is shipped c) less has to be recycled.

     

    Making a smaller producet a) saves on material costs b) saves on shipping costs c) saves on recycling costs

     

    Smaller products = cheaper to produce* and more environmentally friendly

     

    *assuming similar fab costs

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  • Reply 31 of 79

    It should be noted that Apple expenditures in R&D are incredibly low when compared to industry peers :

     

    http://www.asymco.com/2012/01/30/you-cannot-buy-innovation/

     

    Historically, they almost have been always lower than 4% of sales rather than the typical 5-10% which is all main consumer manufacturing industries norm. And their provisionning expenses are also very low.

     

    That means that Apple is an extensively focused and efficient company because despite WS moaning their small expense do produce immense results.

     

    The other striking thing is how their manufacturing use unusual techniques which need a lot of R&D.

    The unibody process or the iphone 4 were bad enough but using deep draw aluminium forming for a computer carcass comes out of the far left field ! 

    Using heavy automation is NeXt and Jobs legacy but still is quite a big R&D (mostly D) expense.

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  • Reply 32 of 79
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by helicopterben View Post

     

    Apple Board seriously need to think about the amount of money Apple will be making in couple of years and invest them wisely and actively. They seem so slow in service sector growth and buyouts of some decent size market cap company which creates regular free cash flows!

     

    Bottom line : Hardware business will not work forever! Competitors will copy, New companies will emerge!

    Get aggressive in Service business like Apple Payments, Entertainment like Netflix, Data Provider (use VOIP) (Kick out T, VZ and get rid of phone minutes), Cable business (iTV), iSearch. Do anything but do it :p  Kick out the lazy board members like GORE! Get in guys like Elon Musk!


     

    Gawd. Please stop.

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  • Reply 33 of 79
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,657member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

    This is proof they’re working on a car.


    Well..it's proof they're working on something beyond the incremental improvements we've seen in the last two years.    Or it means that someone is wasting a hell of a lot of money.   But I've always suspected that Apple is working on a lot more than they've ever let on, especially considering the amount of employees who will occupy the new spaceship while Apple is still keeping the old campus.    You don't need that number of employees to reduce the bezel size on an iPad or make a MacBook thinner or even to design a TV or watch.

     

    As I've predicted several times in the past, I think in the long term, Apple becomes a robotics/AI company.   IMO, that's a much more natural progression for Apple than a car. 

     

    An Apple car probably wouldn't have doors because Apple hates seams so much.   If Apple did do a car, the question is what would they do differently from what Tesla is doing (aside from not using Android in the display)?   Also, the capital costs for a car manufacturing facility are incredibly enormous, even for Apple,  and it's not something they could farm out to an electronics factory in China.

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  • Reply 34 of 79
    Originally Posted by zoetmb View Post

    An Apple car probably wouldn't have doors because Apple hates seams so much.   If Apple did do a car, the question is what would they do differently from what Tesla is doing (aside from not using Android in the display)?   Also, the capital costs for a car manufacturing facility are incredibly enormous, even for Apple,  and it's not something they could farm out to an electronics factory in China.


     

    That’s why I hope Apple contracts with Tesla to do the internals of their vehicles. Also their battery tech. Apple is AWESOME at that stuff and we really need to stop seeing “200 miles per charge” on cars. Even their fourth-gen car, slated for 2017, is only 200MPC.

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  • Reply 35 of 79

    In other news, Samsung tries to write off Apple's $4.5 billion in R&D in taxes for themselves. "Everyone knows we use Apple for R&D for our future product roadmap" said a Samsung representative "so we should be able to use that for tax write-offs as well".

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  • Reply 36 of 79
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    pscooter63 wrote: »
    I feel your pain, but physics are physics.  Personally, I've never NOT had external speakers (with sub) on any desktop, even the last iMac I owned (2007).

    That's you. You live on AI. For regular users there's a reason it's called an AIO.
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  • Reply 37 of 79
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    brutus009 wrote: »
    Are you honestly buying an iMac for its speakers? That's ridiculous. Aesthetics are way more important than acoustics for an Apple desktop.

    I know where you stand so.
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  • Reply 38 of 79
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    paxman wrote: »
    It would be nice but it will never happen. The answer...
    http://store.apple.com/us/mac/mac-accessories/audio-speakers#!

    AIO! Sheesh!
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  • Reply 39 of 79

    I'm not sure if an Apple iCar is a serious topic or not...but just in case it is and to add some perspective....

     

    I read it takes Toyota, 300 man years of time just to "upgrade" the Camry.

     

    That's just for an upgrade not the original design of the car. Wow!

     

    Also, I think Apple's new 5s is hardly an incremental improvement. The Fingerprint security, the A7/M chip for speed, the camera tech and the weight are quite impressive.

     

    Same goes for iOS7, Mavericks, iWork/iLife now free, colors on the 5c, iPad Air, RMini, MBP's, MBA's, MacPro.

     

    I think 2013 was a fantastic year for Apple. And it shows a lot of hard work. 

     

    I would love to have a new 27" iMac, 11" MBA, iPad Air, iPad Mini, ATV, TimeCapsule, and a gold 5s.

     

    Yes, there is overlap, but, my oh my, what beautiful machines these all are! :)

     

    I'm making do with a 4s and an 8 year old iMac.

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  • Reply 40 of 79

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    Just open Home tab nd make money

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