Apple increased R&D spending by more than a third in 2012

Despite grumblings from critics who feel as if Apple has lost its edge, everything seems to be getting better at 1 Infinite Loop with sales, profits and staff increasing this year - And more than a billion dollars being added to the company's R&D budget.

To some, the recent announcement of the new, smaller generation of iPads and lack of long-expected, much-delayed iTV announcement is a sign that Apple has stopped innovating when it comes to consumer electronic devices, and started consolidating and revisiting old successes. Can’t they come up with something new? the doubters wonder and, it turns out, they’re not entirely alone: Apple seems to be thinking the same thing, and has responded appropriately: By adding more than $1 billion to its research and development budget in 2012 alone.

That figure comes from the company’s annual Form 10-K, a financial report that the company has to provide for investors according to Securities and Exchange Commission rules; the 2012 Form 10-K reveals that Apple’s R&D spending rose to $3.4 billion this year, up from $2.4 billion in 2011. This rise comes, in part, due to increased competition in the key computer and mobile hardware spaces, as the report explains. “The Company expects competition in these markets to intensify significantly as competitors attempt to imitate some of the features of the Company’s products and applications within their own products or, alternatively, collaborate with each other to offer solutions that are more competitive than those they currently offer,” the report notes, going on to add that “these markets are characterized by aggressive pricing practices, frequent product introductions, evolving design approaches and technologies, rapid adoption of technological and product advancements by competitors, and price sensitivity on the part of consumers and businesses.” In that kind of environment, it’s no wonder that the company wants to stay ahead of the crowd as much as possible.

It doesn’t help that Apple keeps getting involved in patent infringement lawsuits, something that the report admits are “often expensive, time-consuming [and] disruptive to the Company’s operations, and distracting to management” (Maybe Apple should start paying its R&D staff even more to decrease the likelihood of any future such lawsuits). And, yet, even with increased competition and increased likelihood of legal action, Apple had a pretty great year, if you go by what’s in the report: The company has roughly $121 billion worth of cash in its coffers, up from $81 billion at the same time last year (which was itself up from 2010′s $51 billion), thanks in large part to sales being up 45 percent on the last year, from $108 billion in 2011 to an impressive $156 billion this year.

Also up: Profits, which rose 61 percent from 2011 levels to $41.7 billion, and gross margins, which rose from 40.5 percent in 2011 to 43.9 percent. Even its number of employees rose, with the company adding almost 13,000 staff worldwide. All in all, Apple’s apparently had a pretty great 2012 – No wonder that it can afford to spend more looking for the Next Big Thing… even if it seems to be taking its time in actually finding it.

(Via.)

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Bad manners? UK store stops serving customers yakking on mobile phones

Staff at a store in England have become so annoyed with people talking on their mobile phones at the cash register that they're now refusing to serve them.

The County Stores in south-west England says on its website that visitors will be able to find, among its many offerings, “a bakery, our delicatessen counter, a small and friendly butcher, quality chocolates and coffee.” They’ll also find a notice informing them that should they approach a cash register while talking on a mobile phone, they won’t be served.

Staff at the store, which has been in business since 1836, have become so fed up with distracted customers yakking away on their handsets that in the end the notice seemed like the only solution.

“Quite simply, if someone’s on their phone, we’ll serve the next person,” store assistant Sharon Kidd told the Daily Mail. “People refusing to hang up when it’s their turn to be served is happening increasingly, and…..the queue can get quite long.”

Kidd said that on the whole that the policy has been well received by customers, with only one or two visitors getting upset after being ignored.

The owner of the store, Hugh Duder, understands his workers’ disgruntlement at visitors who appear unable to take a break from their mobiles, saying, “It’s disrespectful to be on the phone when you want to get served, and the counter assistants shouldn’t have to put up with it.”

The store isn’t first in the UK to adopt such a policy. Earlier this year Darren Groom, owner of a coffee shop in Norwich in eastern England, decided to “strike a blow for basic manners” by putting up a sign indicating that he would refuse to serve customers talking on a phone.

Groom explained that he’d become fed up with people expecting him to be able to lip read their order.

“In the shop we need to ask a few questions, like whether they’re having it in or taking it away, whether they want whole milk or not, sugar or not,” he told the BBC, adding “When people come in we like to say ‘hello’. It’s nice if people respond to that. They should have the basic manners to converse with us.”

In the case of retail stores, it’s possible the issue of customers talking on their phone while at the cash register is a bigger annoyance than many people realize. However, beyond sticking up notices, there’s little staff can do. If only cell phone jammers weren’t illegal….

[Image: Arcady / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Disturbance in the Force: Star Wars MMO creative director leaves BioWare

BioWare loses another marquee member of its creative staff, as Star Wars: The Old Republic's Daniel Erickson resigns.

Star Wars: The Old Republic hasn’t had the rockiest first year an MMO has ever had. Age of Conan, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and many others never racked up the more than 1.5 million players BioWare and Electronic Arts’ years in the making game did when it opened for business last December. Few MMOs have lost players as quickly as quickly as Star Wars has though, with 400,000 players abandoning the game between February and May alone, forcing BioWare to redesign it as a free-to-play game. It is now, perhaps unsurprisingly, losing its creative staff almost as fast as its players. Creative director Daniel Erickson announced on Thursday that he is leaving BioWare.

“As part of leaving BioWare I’m officially starting a Twitter account for job hunt and design thoughts,” said Erickson.

He went on, clearly frustrated with the current cut throat state of the video game industry as the retail market dwindles, and other game formats take center stage in the quest to replace lost revenue. “When 90 percent of the industry is saying the exact same thing (social, mobile, FTP!) a huge number of people are going to lose that race. Job hunt thoughts: If you think a monetization approach is saying the exact same thing as a game idea, I don’t know why we’re talking.”

As recently as July, Erickson was discussing how he and the rest of BioWare’s Austin team were working diligently to improve The Old Republic to try and reignite interest in the project. “What we always say is, before the game came out it was out game,” he told Digital Trends, “As soon as it launched, it became the community’s game. [What] we’re saying now is we’re going to find any way we can to get the game in front of people. Because when people play The Old Republic, they like The Old Republic. If we can get people to get in there, play it, hang out… we’re really confident we’re going to get a bunch of new players from that.”

Shortly after that though, EA announced that the game would go free-to-play to level 50, and then went on to layoff a significant number of staff members at the Austin office, including executive producer Rich Vogel.

BioWare is bleeding these days. In addition to the exodus of The Old Republic’s staff, the company’s founders left the studio at the end of July.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Microsoft recruiting former OnLive staff. Will Xbox 720 stream games?

Microsoft seeks OnLive staff. Streaming video game service will be a key battleground for Sony and Microsoft in the next console generation.

Sony’s got Gaikai, but Microsoft might have OnLive to counter it. In a manner of speaking that is.

OnLive’s dissolution as an independent company was not just abrupt but unexpected. People knew full well that the cloud-based streaming video game business was still a limited niche, but no one understood quite how meager an audience OnLive had for such a massive operation. With a rumored 1800 users playing on millions of dollars worth of servers, OnLive was captaining a battle-ready navy on what was essentially a pond. New owners and past investor Laudner Partners is committed to developing OnLive’s place in the nascent on-demand gaming business though. Founder and CEO Steve Perlman is staying on with the reborn company but it’s unknown how much of the original staff will be re-hired after Laudner laid off everyone.

Many of those employees may find new employment in Redmond, Washington though. Microsoft is actively recruiting OnLive’s former staff. GamesIndustry International spotted a posting from Microsoft seeking OnLive staff.

“We are eager to speak to individuals and teams affected by the OnLive transition. With the stunning success of Xbox/Kinect and accelerated growth of this business, we are looking to add key players who want to make a real impact in creating groundbreaking new products and services.”

There were rumors just after OnLive officially opened for business in 2010 that Microsoft was courting the company for acquisition. Those rumors reappeared after Sony purchased OnLive’s main competitor Gaikai in June. Former employees of OnLive anonymously said that part of the reason the company failed is that Perlman refused to sell the company to interested buyers. Given its interest in OnLive talent, it would seem that Microsoft was one of those interested parties.

The posting is also telling about Microsoft’s plans for the Xbox 720, sometimes called Durango. Based on Sony and Microsoft’s recent activity, streaming game content is going to be a central service of both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720. This was an inevitability. It will be interesting to see though how Microsoft integrates that streaming service into its already successful Xbox business. Is cloud-based streaming game content going to be the core of Xbox Live? Microsoft is going to have difficulty going forward convincing new Xbox owners to pay for online multiplayer. It’s already experimenting with free-to-play content, signaling that transition. If streaming replaces current Xbox Live Gold services though, Microsoft will need to best the quality offered by OnLive.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

OnLive isn’t out of business, but won’t comment on full staff layoff

Cloud-based games on demand company OnLive isn't closed as rumors suggest, but the company is strangely silent about staff layoffs.

The sky is falling! Or maybe it’s the clouds.  Just one cloud actually. Cloud-based streaming video game service OnLive is closing.

At least that’s what Friday rumors purported. Turns out that OnLive isn’t shutting down, but it’s up in the air whether anyone is working there or not.

It all started when InXile Entertainment head honcho Brian Fargo took to Twitter on Friday morning, saying, “Just received an email that OnLive is closed as of today!” A bold, dangerous statement; Consider how many game developers and publishers working with OnLive likely heard about the Tweet within minutes. It’s the stuff of Internet brushfire legend.

Fargo’s exclamation was followed up by a report at Mashable that OnLive had laid of its entire staff. Its source claimed all OnLive employees were summoned in for a meeting at 10am PDT on Friday and all in attendance were promptly laid off. A number of staff were told that they would be immediately rehired as the company transformed into something new.

That same source said that the management of CEO and founder Steve Perlman was the cause of OnLive’s implosion. His refusal to sell the company to interested buyers was apparently a primary cause of OnLive’s failure.

OnLive corporate communications director Brian Jaquet took to the press by Friday afternoon though, saying that its only comment on the news is that the business isn’t shutting down. Jaquet answered Joystiq’s inquiry as to whether or not it was closing, “We don’t respond to rumors, but of course not.”

So OnLive will still offer up streaming video games to its users according to Jaquet. Wonderful. What about the company’s hundreds of employees? Unknown. There’s been little indication from the company’s employees on social networking sites that they’ve been laid off, but LinkedIn and Facebook profiles don’t exactly tell full stories.

These are strange days for the nascent streaming gaming business. Sony acquired Gaikai, OnLive’s primary competitor, at the beginning of July. As f that moment, cloud-based gaming was no longer a promising niche for startups like OnLive. Now it’s the territory of massive, multinational businesses. There has been speculation that Microsoft would in turn make an offer to OnLive, but so far the company’s stayed independent. The only console related announcement made by the company recently is that it will support Ouya, Boxer8’s new Google Android game console.

We’ve reached out to a number of OnLive employees and will update this article with any relevant information they provide.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple store cuts? Tech giant reportedly reducing working hours of staff and axing recent hires

It seems that Apple is in the midst of reducing the working hours of staff at its retail stores, and even laying off those recently taken on.

Apple has reportedly been making cuts to its retail workforce, many of them new employees fresh out of the store’s training program.

Apple fan site MacRumors said that in recent weeks it had been told of lay-offs from a number of Apple stores – particularly in the UK – though long-term cuts in working hours for part-time staff in the US and Canada have also been reported.

According to MacRumors, one particular Apple store in the UK dismissed all employees with less than six months of service, “including a group that had been hired only one month ago and had just completed their training program.”

A separate case reported to the fan site indicated that besides new workers being laid off, some long-term retail staff who’d recently been promoted had apparently been returned to their original job position and never saw any pay increase.

An unnamed source based in the UK also told MacRumors that several training groups had been dismissed in the last week alone, “all of whom were still within their probationary periods as new employees.”

As for Apple store employees in North America, working hours have reportedly been slashed for part-time staff. Employee vacations have also been cut for full-time staff in order to reduce reliance on part-time workers.

There appears to be no obvious reason for the reported cuts and lay-offs, which come just a couple of months after reports of some fairly hefty pay rises for store workers in a bid to boost what had been considered by many to be some rather light pay packets.

Any shake-up in its retail operations will be the work of John Browett, brought in by Apple in April to oversee its retail business. Browett had been working at Dixons, a major electronics chain in the UK. While there, he made some major cuts in order to streamline the business – but Apple stores? Aren’t they performing well?

And as MacRumors points out, if the lay-offs are for real, the timing seems a little bizarre. Next month the company is almost certain to unveil the next iteration of its iPhone, a device for which demand is likely to be huge; and then soon after that we’ll be in the holiday season. It looks like the existing store employees have a busy time ahead of them.

Some 20 million visits a month are paid to the tech giant’s retail stores, of which there are currently 373 in 13 countries.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com