The public expects Apple to churn out innovative products each year, or at least updated versions of their existing productions with a few innovations here and there. Surely this can not be achieved without substantial investment being made into research and development. It has been discovered through Apple’s annual Form 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company’s R&D expenses were up 32 percent this year. Apple has spent $4.5 billion on research and development alone this year, that almost the amount for which BlackBerry, an entire company, is likely to be sold.
Last year, Apple’s R&D expenditures stood at $3.4 billion, a 39 percent increase in itself from $2.4 billion spent on R&D in 2011. Apple accounts the increase in expenditure to increase in personnel, also to increased expenditures it had to make to support expanded activities. Apple believes that “focused investments” in R&D are crucial to its future growth, the filing states, and that it expects to make further investments in this sector down the line. $4.5 billion is merely a fraction of the huge pile of cash Apple is sitting on, at the end of its previous quarter, the company had nearly $150 billion in cash reserves. The filing also mentions Apple’s plans to spend $11 billion on capital expenditures next year, earmarking $550 million just for retail store facilities. 30 new stores are expected to be opened around the globe next year, with 20 existing stores likely to be remodeled.
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