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Apple Announces Plans to Build $1 Billion Campus in Austin, Texas
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I thought the same thing. For the minimal amount of products they sell, there are an awful lot of people working for Apple. It'd be one thing if their quality was great or they were churning out products quickly, but neither are happening.
I suspect it has a lot to do where there are large concentrations of technical talent; ie engineers. And that is usually found near universities that produce that talent, and near other tech companies. The SF Bay Area is extremely saturated - and expensive. Apple already has some facilities in Austin, so...it makes sense to build on that.
Apple's most recent quarter of $63 billion in sales, up 20% from last years quarter, and, its guidance of approx $90 billion for the next quarter, indicate otherwise.
[doublepost=1544713924][/doublepost]The data centers are totally green.
Apple on Thursday announced it will invest $1 billion to build a new campus in Austin, Texas.
Located less than a mile from its existing facilities, the 133-acre campus will initially accommodate 5,000 additional employees, with the capacity to grow to 15,000, which would make Apple the largest private employer in Austin.
In its press release, Apple said jobs created at the campus would include a wide range of functions, including engineering, R&D, operations, finance, sales, and customer support. At 6,200 people, Austin already represents the largest population of Apple employees outside Cupertino.
One of Apple's existing facilities in North Austin
In addition to the new campus, Apple announced plans for a general expansion of operations over the next three years in cities across the United States, including Pittsburgh, New York, and Boulder. Apple also said it will establish new sites in Seattle, San Diego, and Culver City.
The announcement caps a year of continued job creation for Apple. The company added 6,000 jobs to its American workforce in 2018 and now employs 90,000 people in all 50 states. In January, Apple said it was on track to create 20,000 jobs in the U.S. by 2023.
Apple said it also plans to invest $10 billion in U.S. data centers over the next five years, including $4.5 billion this year and next.
Article Link: Apple Announces Plans to Build $1 Billion Campus in Austin, Texas
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Apple does sell a minimal amount of great quality products. We agree on one point but not the other.
How many people do you think should work at Apple based on your preconceived notions of quantity, speed and quality?
Indeed. I think they plan to make some money at this new campus.
California's economic output at $2.7 trillion ranks 5th in the world; preceded by the United States, China, Japan, and Germany.
I'd say it's working out pretty good.
The same people that make snide comments on how Apple has too many people working for them are half the time the same people that think Tim Cook pulls engineers off of Mac Pros to make watch bands. The only only time they are content is when their favorite gadget gets an update.
Not to mention their continuously planned billions spent on R&D
Valid, but even you say unit sales are flat lining. I’m just not a fan of people reading FUD headlines and spreading the word like it’s 100% true.
It's a different pot of money.
Yeah Maflynn's post seems to miss the fact they plan to make billions.If they can save hundreds of millions on the way to making billions the math makes sense.
Why doesn't Apple open buildings in some of the "flyover" states? Seems to me that the costs would be much lower for them and their employees. If I could get a good job with Apple I wouldn't mind moving to, say, Montana.
I just talked to someone from Austin and while it's nice for the job market he is bummed about the already terrible traffic situation.
This has already been happening in Austin for quite some time. Haven't looked in awhile, but the city is continuously at or near the top of the fastest growing cities in the country.
My wife and I looked at moving there 6+ years ago. Home prices in Austin were comparable to what they were here in Kansas City at that time. We were looking at homes in the ~$150-200k range. Since that time, those same homes in Austin are selling in the ~$350k range. Here in KC, those houses are only up to ~$250k.
Great quality products? Like how I can't use the headphones that come with my $1000 phone in my $1500 Macbook Pro? Or that a "pro" computer has a whopping 2 USB-C ports? How about the charging location for the Magic Mouse? Or how many software features are announced in "beta" or are "coming soon" but not available at launch? I can keep going if you want more examples.
The Mac Mini took 4 years to be updated, the Mac Pro hasn't been updated since 2013, the iPad mini is creeping up there since its last refresh. With the workforce they have, I don't think its an unrealistic expectation that these products should be updated a little more frequently.
To be clear though, I think Apple makes good products that last longer than ones from their competitors. I just don't think they are as great as they used to be. Given how much they are charging, its harder to justify spending that much when companies are surpassing Apple in smartphone features.
Tech companies tend to move where technical/engineering/r&d is mostly located. That generally involves close proximity of major research universities, which both California and the northeast have aplenty. Austin happens to have the University of Texas at Austin, which is a major science/tech hub for the central Texas area, with Rice University (Houston) and Texas A&M not far away. As Dell has been doing since the 90s, my guess is that Apple will develop a close relationship with U.T. after the facility opens.
I'm curious how Apple can claim to have employees in all 50 states. What Apple jobs are there in the more remote states like Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas? The only thing I can think of might be a small handful of remote workers, because it certainly isn't due to Apple Stores.
Having top universities is not generally enough for getting more than a small office.
You do stop reporting unit numbers if you want to change the valuation of the stock. By focusing on units, wall street has been missing the big picture.
Look at companies like Netflix and Amazon that focus on customers, and their stock price is more than 90 times their earnings.
Amazon has 100 million Prime subscribers and Netflix has 148 million subscribers.
Apple has an active installed base of over 1.3 billion loyal customers, but their stock price is only 14 times their earnings. If Apple were valued using the same metrics as Amazon and Netflix, its stock price would be 5x higher.
Apple wants to change the focus from units to customers.
This billion dollar campus is primarily going to be a call center engaged in sales and customer support.