Apple spent a whopping $2.94 billion on research and development last quarter, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Apple R&D spending represents an increase of 6 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
While Apple keeps its plans close to its chest, it invests a tremendous amount of money on research and development to create the products we’ll be buying a year or more from now.
The $2.94 billion R&D budget represents just 6.4 percent of Apple’s quarterly net sales. Inflation might account for a tiny amount of the increased spend. But there’s no doubt Apple is investing more than it did this time in 2016, during the run-up to the iPhone 7.
What are you building, Stark?
Being Apple, of course, there’s no confirmation on what exactly the company spent money on. However, we know a number of projects Apple is working on right now.
The two most obvious ones are the iPhone 8 handsets and Apple’s Amazon Echo rival HomePod smart speaker, both of which will debut later this year.
The company also reportedly has hundreds of employees working on a standalone augmented reality headset. (Apple CEO Tim Cook repeatedly says AR gets him excited.)
The Project Titan Apple car project is moving forward in some fashion. Cupertino also continues work on various mobile health initiatives. And plenty has been written about the company’s “in-sourcing” efforts to bring more chip development in-house.
Apple R&D remains a mystery
Ultimately, we’re unlikely to find out exactly how Apple’s R&D budget breaks down. But if you’re an Apple fan hoping that the company’s got some nifty new creations in the works, this R&D figure should give you a bit of hope.
And, hey, Cook did acknowledge that all the rumors about Apple’s upcoming products do kinda help during yesterday’s earnings call!
Via: Apple Insider
