5 ms·

You have to agree the tech involved is complex.

• stephc_int13 4y ago
  Sure. But to put things in perspective, the entire R&D budget for the first iPhone was $250M, and I don't think it was highly optimized for cost. 10B is 40x higher. And this is an average year, for an unfinished product that did not even start from scratch (they started with the Occulus Rift, a pretty advanced prototype)
  • asadlionpk 4y ago
    in my mind, amazing R&D product is either = low budget + passionate people + toxic environment to work in longterm OR = high budget + leetcoders + cushy working environment
  • dnissley 4y ago
    The way I think of this is if Apple had to invent the smartphone when only desktop and laptop computers existed. No dumbphones. No mp3 players. No other second rate smartphones. The budget would far exceed $250M if that was the case, since so many of those things had resulted in supply chains for commodity parts that could, worst case, be modified slightly to fit Apple's needs. (Not that they didn't invent anything in order to produce the iPhone -- IIRC the glass screen in particular was a new feature not seen on any device before. Also they did a lot of legwork themselves e.g. the anodized aluminum device body that came from previous work on ipod / macbook).