Apple's R&D spending exceeds $2 billion for the first time. How much of it went to programmers?

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Apple recently released its financial report for the third quarter of fiscal year 2015 ending June 27, 2015. The report shows that the company's revenue for the quarter was $49.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 33%; net profit was $10.677 billion, compared with $7.7 billion in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 37.8%; diluted earnings per share was $1.85, compared with $1.28 in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 45%.

At the same time, according to Apple's 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple's total R&D spending for the quarter has soared by $116 million to $2.03 billion. In the same period last year, Apple's R&D spending was only $1.6 billion, which means that the company's R&D spending has increased by 21% year-on-year in this quarter.

It should be said that Apple has always been known for its "secrecy" in the industry. Many of the projects carried out by the company have very strict confidentiality procedures and are not easily understood by the outside world. In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012, the company's R&D expenditure exceeded the $1 billion mark for the first time, and since then Apple's investment in this area has begun to increase significantly.

One of the most obvious examples is the company's newly launched Apple Watch, which was reportedly developed within the company for many years before it was officially launched on the market, thus consuming a lot of R&D expenses.

Some analysts believe that Apple's significant increase in R&D spending in this fiscal quarter is mainly because the company is making all-out efforts to prepare for the launch of the new iPhone and iPad this fall.

According to current news, Apple is very likely to apply the Force Touch pressure sensing technology in the Apple Watch to the next generation iPhone. However, there are also reports that the application of this new technology has greatly affected the yield rate of some new iPhone components, so the new iPhone may be in short supply in the early stage of listing.

It is reported that Apple has very strict requirements for the location of its R&D centers, that is, these R&D centers must be located in hot spots of the global technology industry. At present, Apple has announced that the company's largest R&D center will be located in Tsunashima, Yokohama, Japan. The R&D center occupies part of the location of the original Panasonic factory, covers a total area of ​​about 25,000 square meters, and is expected to be officially completed in March 2017.

Of course, a more exciting possibility is that much of this R&D expenditure has been applied to a mysterious project called "Apple Car". It is reported that the internal code name of this project is "Titan" and it is being developed in a secret building codenamed SG5.

Moreover, according to previous reports by AppleInsider, Apple's information media, Apple started developing the car project very early and received development-related components in a building a few minutes' drive from the Sunnyvale 1 Infinite Loop headquarters. At present, we don't know whether this second campus is the launch site of the "Titan" project, but the media confirmed that Apple did carry out large-scale activities in this campus and implemented a number of renovations related to the car project, including the construction of an "automotive work area" and a "repair room."

It is worth mentioning that Apple has launched a map data collection project in many states in the United States to collect data for Apple map services. This project may also contribute a significant proportion to the company's R&D expenditure.