Regarding percentage...that IS a valuable indicator. It indicates given the resources available to a company's management, how much it is willing to commit to R&D (or any other expense).
Dell = 1% (of revenue)
Apple = 7% (of revenue)
Another, related note of interest in Microsoft.
Microsoft = 15% (of revenue)
(About $7 BILLION)
About Microsoft: First of all, they fund a fair amount of basic research, which means research for its own sake more or less. This is MS aping IBM again, but in a good way: Basic research is good, and since there's no profit expectation you have to be pretty big and pretty comfortable to afford it.
Second, and far more cynically, MS does things like donating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hardware and software to university CS programs to undermine UNIX, and then they budget these donations as R&D. So a fair amount of that "R&D" money actually underwrites the ultimate underselling tactic in a crucial market.
Second, and far more cynically, MS does things like donating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hardware and software to university CS programs to undermine UNIX, and then they budget these donations as R&D. So a fair amount of that "R&D" money actually underwrites the ultimate underselling tactic in a crucial market.
It doesn't matter what the percentage is as a portion of gross revenue, what they spend is what they spend , and they spend more.
Quote:
Originally posted by Brad
I read another article about Dell's R&D once before. A good chunk of that R&D actually goes into streamlining the manufacturing process and finding cheaper solutions. That's why he says there's a high profit return on R&D.
Apple, on the other hand, has to use its R&D for Mac OS X, software, hardware, and other cool technologies. Quite the difference.
I think you're missing a valid poitn Matsu. The two companies define R&D as something different. For all we know Apple spends a lot of money streamlining the production like Dell, only they don't consider it R&D.
Dell doesn't make software. So its natural to assume that they do not put as much money into creating products as apple does, because it does create both software and hardware.
They make sense. Dell does not make software. Someone was argueing that Dell spends more R&D streamlining production. Where as Apple does more R&D on software. Which is true considering Dell isn't a software company.
Dell doesn't make software. So its natural to assume that they do not put as much money into creating products as apple does, because it does create both software and hardware.
Quote:
Originally posted by bunge
I think you're missing a valid [point] Matsu. The two companies define R&D as something different. For all we know Apple spends a lot of money streamlining the production like Dell, only they don't consider it R&D.
Comments
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Another, related note of interest in Microsoft.
Microsoft = 15% (of revenue)
(About $7 BILLION)
(Microsoft is spending 14X as much as Apple and yet they STILL cannot seem to come up with anything terribly useful.)
Agreed.... Apple has released four versions of a knock-out operating system in the last three years....
...meanwhile, back at Microsoft, perhaps Longhorn will emerge by 2006.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Regarding percentage...that IS a valuable indicator. It indicates given the resources available to a company's management, how much it is willing to commit to R&D (or any other expense).
Dell = 1% (of revenue)
Apple = 7% (of revenue)
Another, related note of interest in Microsoft.
Microsoft = 15% (of revenue)
(About $7 BILLION)
About Microsoft: First of all, they fund a fair amount of basic research, which means research for its own sake more or less. This is MS aping IBM again, but in a good way: Basic research is good, and since there's no profit expectation you have to be pretty big and pretty comfortable to afford it.
Second, and far more cynically, MS does things like donating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hardware and software to university CS programs to undermine UNIX, and then they budget these donations as R&D. So a fair amount of that "R&D" money actually underwrites the ultimate underselling tactic in a crucial market.
Originally posted by Amorph
Second, and far more cynically, MS does things like donating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hardware and software to university CS programs to undermine UNIX, and then they budget these donations as R&D. So a fair amount of that "R&D" money actually underwrites the ultimate underselling tactic in a crucial market.
So utterly clever and eeeeviiiiil.
Originally posted by Matsu
It doesn't matter what the percentage is as a portion of gross revenue, what they spend is what they spend , and they spend more.
Originally posted by Brad
I read another article about Dell's R&D once before. A good chunk of that R&D actually goes into streamlining the manufacturing process and finding cheaper solutions. That's why he says there's a high profit return on R&D.
Apple, on the other hand, has to use its R&D for Mac OS X, software, hardware, and other cool technologies. Quite the difference.
I think you're missing a valid poitn Matsu. The two companies define R&D as something different. For all we know Apple spends a lot of money streamlining the production like Dell, only they don't consider it R&D.
Originally posted by scavanger
Dell doesn't make software. So its natural to assume that they do not put as much money into creating products as apple does, because it does create both software and hardware.
Originally posted by bunge
I think you're missing a valid [point] Matsu. The two companies define R&D as something different. For all we know Apple spends a lot of money streamlining the production like Dell, only they don't consider it R&D.
Originally posted by scavanger
It was just a comment. This is a Forum...
You call that a comment? THIS is a comment!
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