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I prefer multiples of the Apollo program when discussing Apple's finances. In 1973, NASA reported to Congress that the entire Apollo program cost $25.4 billion
by jsmthrowaway 12y ago
I prefer multiples of the Apollo program when discussing Apple's finances. In 1973, NASA reported to Congress that the entire Apollo program cost $25.4 billion ($131.4 billion in 2013). It's useful when quantifying Apple's cash on hand, which is currently > 1x Apollo.
With the quarterly revenue, they could probably reenact Apollo 11, since each launch was ~$350 million pre-inflation. If you're only doing one, a lot cheaper.
- avar 12y agoIt's really hard to quantify NASA & military spending though, a lot of that money was already spent by the military on ICBM research, which coincided nicely with trying to send people to space. To get an accurate number you'd have to take the amount that the US was spending on ICBMs, and ever more accurately how much the Third Reich was spending on research for the V2s etc. After all the US military & NASA benefited immensely from Wernher von Braun and other German scientists that delivered Nazi rocket research to them after WWII.
- marvin 12y agoThe argument gets a little shaky once you count effort that far back; after all, almost all of our efficiency today is due to advancements that earlier humans have done. Computers, engineering, technology, economics, science, printing, writing, fire, language.
- ido 12y agoAnd a lot of that research Apple will not have to do in this hypothetical situation - how much of that cost was manufacturing and how much was r&d that only needs to be done once?