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Apple R&D spending reached record levels last quarter
To say that Apple had a stellar holiday quarter would be an understatement. For the quarter gone by, Apple recorded just over $18 billion in profits, enough to make it the most profitable quarter in corporate history. But lest anyone think Apple is easing up on the throttle, the company remains as committed to innovative endeavors as ever. Case in point: the company during its most recent quarter spent more on research and development (R&D) than ever before. In their quarterly earnings report, Apple relayed that it spent $1.895 billion on R&D, up from $1.3 billion during the same quarter a year-ago. Apple's previous high for R&D expenses clocked in at $1.6 billion during the company's June quarter. Of the uptick in R&D spending this past quarter, Apple writes: The growth in R&D expense during the first quarter of 2015 compared to the first quarter of 2014 was driven primarily by an increase in headcount and related expenses, including share-based compensation costs, and machinery and equipment to support expanded R&D activities. The Company continues to believe that focused investments in R&D are critical to its future growth and competitive position in the marketplace and are directly related to timely development of new and enhanced products that are central to the Company's core business strategy. As such, the Company expects to make further investments in R&D to remain competitive. As we detailed earlier this week, just because Apple doesn't hold flashy press conferences to detail the crazy new prototypes they're working with, it doesn't mean they're not innovating or that they're "boring." via AppleInsider
CCP's Sean Decker and Hilmar Petursson on the future of EVE, DUST 514, EVE-VR, and mobile gaming
Earlier today, CCP Games announced that industry veteran Sean Decker is coming on board as Senior Vice President of Product Development. Sean's laundry-list of industry experience includes a recent 12-year stint at EA, where he headed up the Play4Free division. This has naturally led to some trepidation within the EVE Online community, which has been extremely wary of free-to-play and microtransaction-based business practices since the Monoclegate scandal in 2011. I caught up with Sean Decker and CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson last night to get the low-down on Sean's role, how he will influence EVE and CCP's other products, and what the future has in store for DUST 514 and EVE-VR. Sean is to be the head of product development across all of CCP's games, not just the free-to-play titles, but I wouldn't worry about EVE going free to play any time soon. "I don't think [free-to-play] is the be all and end all business model," Sean told me, adding that he understands that the subscription model better fits some games. Read on for more information on the future of EVE Online, DUST 514, EVE-VR, and CCP's first foray into mobile gaming.
Verizon's Innovation Center opens its doors to LTE product development
Not sure if you've noticed, but there's an LTE race going on and VZW's wasting no time sprinting to the lead. Despite rival AT&T's February launch of a similar R&D space in Texas, Verizon's cutting its first big red bow on the two years in the making Innovation Center. Located just outside Boston, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based labs began churning out LTE-friendly products in October of 2009, developing 30+ products to date. While most of these may never ride along the borderline blazing speeds of real-world LTE, the environment does give small startups a leg-up in a collaborative, deep-pocketed space (insert emphasis here). The research center also does double duty for the operator's bottom line, offering its Verizon Ventures group first dibs on investment opportunities -- like it did with Nomad Innovation's LiveEdge TV product. Construction on a second mobile applications-focused facility is already underway in San Francisco with its very own opening ceremony slated for late summer. We're glad to see Verizon spreading the bills to spur tech forward, but there's one major thing the carrier forgot -- an emergency room wing for all its crapware-bloated products. Official PR after the break. [Image credit via PCMag]
Intel snaps up former Palm and Apple VP Mike Bell for its smartphone push
Seriously, what the hell did HP acquire when it bought Palm? A bunch of pretty patents and a rapidly dwindling talent pool, it would seem. Mike Bell, a celebrated capture for Palm back in 2007 after 16 years at Apple, was most recently occupying the role of Senior VP for Product Development on Jon Rubinstein's team, but he has now switched allegiances to the blue team. Interestingly, though his address might change, his job spec will not -- Mike will act as Director of Smartphone Product Development in Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, where he'll "help build and lead a team to build breakthrough smartphone reference designs to accelerate Intel Architecture into the market." It's hard to imagine how Intel could signal its intent to be a big player in the smartphone realm any more forcefully. Click past the break for the full text of the internal email announcing Mike's arrival.
