Here is a (partial) list of the biggest spenders of R & D according to Baseline Magazine.
Techonology’s Top R&D SPENDING IN 2006 (millions)
#1. MICROSOFT - $6,584
2 IBM - $6,1073 INTEL CORP - $5,873
4 HEWLETT PACKARD - $3,591
5 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC – $2,195
6 SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC - $2,046
7 ORACLE CORP - $1,872
8 SAP - $1,781
9 GOOGLE INC - $1,228
10 ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES - $1,205
11 BROADCOM CORP - $1,117
12 SYMANTEC CORP – $950
13 YAHOO INC – $833
14 CA INC - $715
15 APPLE INC - $715
16 MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC - $656
17 NVIDIA CORP* - $554
18 CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS - $549
19 ADOBE SYSTEMS INC - $540
20 ANALOG DEVICES - $537
21 EBAY INC – $495
And just in case you are keeping score, Microsoft is spending more than Google in R & D.
What’s funny about this is that Microsoft spent 9 times as much as Apple, yet Apple has a greater diversity of quality products and just much more innovative stuff in general.