Apple Now Has 132K Full-Time Employees, Spent $14.2B on R&D in 2018 Fiscal Year

Monday November 5, 2018 7:23 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Following the conclusion of its 2018 fiscal year, which ended September 29, Apple today filed its annual Form 10-K [PDF] with the SEC. We've combed through the exhaustive, legalese-rich 72-page report so you don't have to.


Highlights:
  • 9,000 more employees: Apple has 132,000 full-time employees as of the end of its 2018 fiscal year, up from 123,000 a year prior.
  • R&D expenses rose nearly $3 billion: Apple spent $14.2 billion on research and development in its 2018 fiscal year, a nearly 23 percent increase over the $11.5 billion it spent in its 2017 fiscal year.
  • Apple continues to execute its share repurchase program: Apple had 23,712 shareholders of record as of October 26, 2018, down from 25,333 as of October 20, 2017. There were 4,754,986,000 outstanding shares of Apple stock as of the end of its 2018 fiscal year.
  • Genius Bar expenses are down: Apple's expenses from warranty claims totaled $4.1 billion in its 2018 fiscal year, down from $4.3 billion in its 2017 fiscal year and $4.6 billion in its 2016 fiscal year.
  • CapEx to drop: Apple anticipates utilizing approximately $14 billion for capital expenditures during its 2019 fiscal year, down from $16.7 billion in its 2018 fiscal year. The capital is used towards Apple's manufacturing equipment, data centers, corporate facilities, and retail stores.
  • Apple snaps up more office space: Apple owned 16.5 million square feet and leased 24.3 million square feet of building space as of September 29, 2018. By comparison, Apple owned 13.4 million square feet and leased 23.0 million square feet of building space as of September 30, 2017.
Apple's annual Form 10-K also acknowledges that "international trade disputes" could adversely affect its business, almost certainly referring to an ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China:
International trade disputes could result in tariffs and other protectionist measures that could adversely affect the Company's business. Tariffs could increase the cost of the Company's products and the components and raw materials that go into making them. These increased costs could adversely impact the gross margin that the Company earns on its products. Tariffs could also make the Company's products more expensive for customers, which could make the Company's products less competitive and reduce consumer demand. Countries may also adopt other protectionist measures that could limit the Company's ability to offer its products and services. Political uncertainty surrounding international trade disputes and protectionist measures could also have a negative effect on consumer confidence and spending, which could adversely affect the Company's business.
Apple's annual Form 10-K can be viewed or downloaded in a variety of formats from the company's Investor Relations website.

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Tags: AAPL, SEC
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zombierunner
17 months ago
Apple: Apple spent $14.2 billion on research and development in its 2018 fiscal year.

Me:
Rating: 30 Votes
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the johnmc
17 months ago

Explain please.....it IS fourteen thousand two hundred million, I explicitly said it this way so it
becomes clear it's a big FAT number.


From what I understand, the confusion comes from the difference in separator characters. In many European countries, a thousand (with two decimal places) is written as 1.000,00. The same number in the US (and other places) is written as 1,000.00.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Dorje Sylas
17 months ago
14.2 mill in R&D. So many jokes to be made about heat issues, keyboards, user repair/serviceability, overly thin devices, and more....

But recycled aluminum shavings. Got that on lockdown!
Rating: 6 Votes
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sw1tcher
17 months ago

Guess so, spending 14.200 billion on R&D, that's a lot.


When you no longer have Steve Jobs around to come up with product ideas, you gotta spend.
Rating: 5 Votes
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AngerDanger
17 months ago

Apple isn't actively developing any new products or working on projects. They will continue to rely solely on the iPhone forever. AAPL at $200 is a great chance to short the stock. You heard it here first.

Man, I wish this was the first time I heard somebody echoing these sentiments. :rolleyes:
Rating: 5 Votes
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dmylrea
17 months ago
Those are some overpaid engineers. I could save Apple a few BILLION dollars in R&D by suggesting they take the old Mac Pro aluminum chassis and put in a modern system board with modern ports and sell it as the new Mac Pro. Instant success. Other than that, we have a new Mac Mini in the same old chassis, a new Macbook Air with a lowly dual core chip and an iPad that can't use a cheap, simple magnetically connected smart cover.

Spend a few dollars making your new iPad COMPUTER usable with a mouse.
Rating: 4 Votes
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donster28
17 months ago
That's where the price increases are going, I guess.
Rating: 4 Votes
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ksec
17 months ago
I am now starting to think R&D are just a way Apple hide their profits. Apple are earning so much more some of these numbers and their productivity don’t make sense. May be now it is normal, but Steve Jobs era manage to do so much more with so little.
Rating: 4 Votes
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hawkeye_a
17 months ago

Also cuz Steve was around. I know he's gone, but it's painfully obvious he's gone.


I'm sure that's a HUGE part of it. I miss Steve.
Rating: 4 Votes
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KPandian1
17 months ago
Apple's R&D budget looks massive, though, percentage wise, it is not so. Pharmaceutical companies manage to show a much higher percentage on the R&D side, though most of it is in promotion/sales.

The European method of numbers is against math principles. All numbers to the right of the dot/full-stop are in the fractions, and commas are used to the left of the dot (unnecessarily) to demarcate thousands, millions and so on. Submit a math solution the European way and you will get zero for your answer. How did they come to a consensus on this? It is about two decades old, I recall.

The Apple employees stats - is that just for the USA?
Rating: 3 Votes

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