14 DAY TRIAL // You know it’s a slow news day when you’re forced to pick at a company’s 10-K form to get some tidbits for a write-up. But in Apple’s case, it’s not as boring.
Filed yesterday and posted to the company’s Investor Relations section, the annual paper contains the usual finance-centric information with a few organizational tidbits on the side.
$6 billion / €4.7 billion spent solely on research and development (R&D)
According to the 130-page filing, which anyone can download for free in PDF format, in 2014 alone Apple has spent a whopping $6 billion / €4.7 billion on research and development. This is a major uptick from the $4.5 billion / €3.54 billion spent last year. We can all guess where much of that extra money went: the Apple Watch.
R&D is a gamble because not all the money that goes in there is always returned. For example, had the Apple Watch proved infeasible at the last stages of testing, the project would have been shelved and the R&D money that had gone into it would have been lost. Luckily for Apple, the device seems to be a go. But they still have to take back some of that money by actually selling the thing.
Much of that figure also went into the new iPhone 6, because it has a new design and new technologies inside. A small portion must have gone into the Retina-equipped iMac as well.
92,600 full-time employees and counting
Between 2013 and 2014, Apple added more than 10 thousand new employees, most of which are actually outside the company’s retail division. In total, the Mac maker now has a whopping 92,600 people on its payroll. If things keep progressing like this, by summer 2015 that number should well exceed 100K.
And we have every reason to believe that will happen because, only in the retail department, Apple plans to grow by as much as 25 new stores. This, after building 21 new stores in 2014 alone. Angela Ahrendts seems determined to turn things around for Apple’s retail organization.
The company also reveals in its 10-K filing that it has plans to expand its office space and the customer support center in Austin, Texas.
The 10-K annual report is a treasure trove of financial information, so if you’re interested in some raw numbers, go ahead and grab it from Apple’s Investor Relations site.