I'm not suggesting anything about Apple's quality of engineers or what they should spend money on. I am only observing that their R&D spending is below other c

I'm not suggesting anything about Apple's quality of engineers or what they should spend money on. I am only observing that their R&D spending is below other companies that are considered in the same class or industry as a percent of revenue. Their spending (as percent) is approximately 1/3 of other phone makers, 1/3 of software developers, or 1/4 of other chipset manufacturers. These numbers are all very rough of course because, as you point out, all of these companies work in multiple sectors and R&D spending is not disclosed in that much detail.