PYMNTS’ Daily Data Dive: Apple’s R&D Budget

Typically, when a product doesn’t live up to expectations or performs poorly in the marketplace, its manufacturer removes it from circulation. One company that is not following this route is Apple.

In 2016, Apple spent an unprecedented amount of money for its research and development (R&D) department in hopes of making underperforming products profitable. The main drivers behind the high investment in R&D for Apple are a growing product range, an expanding services segment and a greater focus on in-house technology development.

Here are the numbers:

$2.8 billion | Amount Apple spent on R&D in the fourth quarter of 2016

$10.5 billion | Amount Apple spent on R&D for the entire 2016 year

$4 billion | Apple’s annual R&D spend since 2014

$28 billion | Amount Apple expects its services segment to grow in 2017

67 percent | Amount of companies that used infrastructure as a service in 2015