Why Does Apple Only Spend 2% of Its Money on R&D?

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You read that right. While big corporations like Microsoft and Google shell out around 15% of their revenue to internal research and development labs, Apple spends only 2.2% to creating new and innovative concepts.

Strangely enough, not only does Apple spend just a small percentage of its revenue to devoting itself to innovate and create new products, the 2.2% figure actually marks a ten-year low for the company. Comparatively, Google spends about 14% of its revenues while Microsoft dishes out about 13% to their internal labs. Apparently the key factor is how often Microsoft and Google are forced to kill a project.

(PHOTOS: Menlo Park: The World’s First R&D Lab)

Obviously, there are a few vital differences, as the cultures between the corporations differ a bit more: Google sets a bit of money aside into its Google Labs projects each year, and is known for its willingness to innovate and experiment. Meanwhile Microsoft has super secret research—shockingly, in a division called Microsoft Research—where it conducts experiments on new projects that would freak out the nearest time traveler from the future.

Apple’s percentage, though, indicates the opposite of what is actually happening: the company’s spending on research and development is actually increasing, but the company has so much money in the bank it still only accounts for a mere 2%. Basically, if Apple had a pajama party, the pillows, mattress and blanket would probably be made out of cash. Followed by high-performing Apple execs rolling around in it. And I would like to be invited.

[via ZDNet]

Erica Ho is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @ericamho and Google+. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.