This year marks ten years since the launch of the original iPhone and, appropriately enough, Apple has ramped up its R&D spending as a percentage of its total revenue to the level it was during the development of its debut handset.
In other words, something big is coming!
Services have become such an important revenue stream for Apple in recent years that the company decided to update its official business strategy today reflect its expanding money making machine.
In a filing with the SEC, Apple made a couple of changes to the description of its business. It’s the first time a major change has been made to the strategy since around 2014.
Apple has confirmed plans to open two additional research and development centers in China this year.
The centers in Shanghai and Suzhou will focus on developing technical experts for its local supply chain, and attracting graduates from universities like Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Apple’s new R&D base in Yokohama, Japan, will focus on artificial intelligence and other related technologies, Tim Cook has revealed.
The new facility is set to be completed by December, well ahead of the projected date of March 2017. In an interview with Nikkei Asian Review, Cook called it a center for “deep engineering,” and said it will be “very different” from the R&D centers Apple plans to build in China.
Apple has announced plans for its second R&D center in China, located in the country’s manufacturing hub Shenzhen. The 2017 opening will help Apple further grow its market in the world’s second largest economy as it challenges local competition.
“We are excited to be opening a new Research and Development center here next year so our engineering team can work even more closely and collaboratively with our manufacturing partners,” Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock said.
Apple has reportedly set up its first R&D center in China, located in Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park, according to a statement issued by the Zhongguancun Park Management Committee.
The plan is for the center to hire a total of 500 employees, who will focus on a wide range of Apple products and devices including, “the development of computer software and hardware products, communication, audio and video devices, as well as advanced technologies for consumer electronics products and the information industry.”
France will soon host a new Apple research center, according to local reports that claim the iPhone maker plans to lease a new R&D facility in Grenoble.
Apple is seeking an 800,000-square-foot warehouse to work on the Apple Car, according to a West Coast real estate giant, who claims space for developing electric vehicles is currently “a hot demand item” in Silicon Valley.
Upstarts like Apple and Alphabet are apparently competing with traditional automakers to set up shop for next-gen research facilities in the tech mecca.
Apple may have reached peak iPhone this quarter after posting declining revenues for the first time since 2003, but rest assured the company is working on the next big thing.
Tim Cook boasted about the amazingly innovative products coming down Apple’s pipeline, and the company’s latest spending figures show its throwing more money than ever at new ideas.
Progress on the Apple Car is coming along faster than anticipated after Project Titan hit some speed bumps earlier this year.
Based on a batch of new hires, it appears that Apple Car parts may have already entered the prototyping phase at the company’s Product Realization Lab, where machinists and engineers produce and test product designs.
