Apple’s R&D Spending Climbs $1 Billion To $3.4 Billion During FY 2012

Apple released the*10-K it filed with the SEC today, reflecting its financial status and records for the entirety of 2012. Most of the content is what we’ve seen already from quarterly results, but a couple of statistics stood out as particularly interesting and worthy of note. For one, Apple spent $3.4 billion in research and development during its 2012 fiscal year, up $1 billion from 2011. Apple also significantly added to its full-time employee pool, with around 12,400 new hires.
The new R&D spending total for the year is perhaps the most impressive number, since it’s an increase that’s much larger than at any time in the company’s past. Between 2011 and 2010, for instance, R&D spend rose only $600,000, and between 2010 and 2009, grew by only $500,000. The massive jump in the research budget could be accounted for by a number of factors, during a year when we saw a number of new products launch.

First, Apple revealed the