n/t

We were first in the Mac Web to:

A.) Spot the story
B.) Give it context within the Apple and Mac community
C.) Report it with that context

In other words, we aren't claiming it's a scoop, but rather that we we were first to publish an Apple-related story about it in the Mac Web.

Thanks for the notes.

Bryan
Editor
TMO

I stop by TMO about five times a day for the latest Mac News.

Thank you for bringing this story to us.

I especially like the TMO spin on stories.

I'm actually surprised that HP spends so much on R&D. The mantra is that Apple does all the research for the home PC market, while now we learn HP spends about 8 times as much...
Or is HP the typical Dell situation, where R&D is mostly spent on sales?

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zpok wrote:

Or is HP the typical Dell situation, where R&D is mostly spent on sales?

I'm pretty sure Dell and HP are VERY different companies.

Dell is like the Wal-Mart of computer makers...low cost through very high volume. I doubt they do very much innovating on their own...their mission is to sell computers as cheaply as they can.

HP, on the other hand, is more like the Apple of the PC world. They're always coming out with media-center computers and things that are a bit different than what everyone else is doing.

It's hardly surprising that HP is the company Apple decided to market the iPod through...they're already open to trying new things, from what I've seen.

Quote

zpok wrote:
I'm actually surprised that HP spends so much on R&D. The mantra is that Apple does all the research for the home PC market, while now we learn HP spends about 8 times as much...
Or is HP the typical Dell situation, where R&D is mostly spent on sales?

You are right in certain extent. Many companies included sales and maintenance expenses into R&D to look good.

That said, Apple is more efficient in their R&D effort than most companies. Since SJ return, Apple only focuses R&D in area that would bear fruits and not some wishy-washy research that go nowhere. Apple use to have many wishy-washy research going on too. SJ killed off all these research efforts long ago.

Remember that Hewlett-Packard is an enormous company that does business in much more than just personal computers... take a look at their web site. I'm sure that the majority of their research dollars go to high-profit technologies like medical imaging and very-high-end software/hardware for large companies and government agencies.

Quote

zpok wrote:
I'm actually surprised that HP spends so much on R&D. The mantra is that Apple does all the research for the home PC market, while now we learn HP spends about 8 times as much...
Or is HP the typical Dell situation, where R&D is mostly spent on sales?

HP produces a lot more than PCs--printers, servers, copiers, scanners, and operating systems, but the real key is to look at R&D as a percentage of sales, not the overall amount. Apple is 8%, HP 5%.

Looking down at the software giants, I wonder how much of their "R&D" is just software development--does it include coding & design? GM doesn't count designing new cars as "R&D."

Apple is much higher on the list when funding is computed as a percentage of the gross.