spending

President Obama plans to increase U.S. funding by 5 percent next year for research and development of a broad swath of technologies, according to his proposed fiscal 2013 budget, which was released today.

The president's budget (see below) has earmarked $140.8 billion for overall R&D, specifically focusing on those areas that will "directly contribute to the creation of transformational technologies that can create the businesses and jobs of the future."

To further research of clean energy, smart infrastructure, wireless communications, and cybersecurity, Obama plans to divide $13.1 billion among the National Science … Read more

Spending on technology around the world managed to rise last year, despite economic woes in Europe and a severe hard-drive shortage, research firm IDC said yesterday.

Overall, IT spending rose just 5 percent in 2011, but that proved to be a healthy gain in the face of worldwide challenges.

The 5 percent figure was calculated using constant currency, a method that does not take into account fluctuations in the exchange rate. In U.S. dollars, the picture was even rosier, with tech spending rising by almost 9 percent last year.

A surge in demand for smartphones, tablets, and software kicked … Read more

The holiday season triggered a healthy surge in online spending, according to stats released yesterday by ComScore.

For 2011's final quarter, online spending in the United States hit $49.7 billion, a 14 percent jump from a year ago. That marked the ninth quarter in a row of positive year-over-year growth and the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit gains.

Ten individual days out of the quarter saw more than $1 billion in online spending. Cyber Monday, November 28, was on top, with $1.25 billion. Monday, December 5, came in second, with $1.18 billion in spending. And Green … Read more

The popularity of Apple's iPad and iPhone is driving the shift of chip spending to wireless from computers, according to IHS-iSuppli.

Global spending by the world's top device makers on chips for wireless products amounted to $58.6 billion in 2011, up 14.5 percent from $51.2 billion in 2010, according to IHS iSuppli. As a result, spending for computers was topped by wireless, which became the world's largest semiconductor spending segment for device makers--aka, OEMs or original equipment manufacturers--in 2011.

Though this is not the first time wireless spending has exceeded that of computer-related spending (… Read more

The outlook for IT spending this year isn't quite as rosy as Gartner previously predicted.

Spending on IT products and services is expected to reach $3.8 trillion in 2012, a 3.7 percent rise from last year when spending totaled $3.7 trillion and had climbed by 6.9 percent from 2010.

Released today, the new forecast is a dip from Gartner's prior projection of 4.6 percent growth for this year. The market researcher now believes that all major tech sectors will witness slower gains in spending for 2012.

Spending on telecom equipment will see the … Read more

U.S. consumers spent a total of $35.3 billion online this holiday season, hitting a record for holiday sales, ComScore said today.

The 56-day holiday shopping period from November 1 to December 26 marked a 15 percent jump in spending over last year's season. The week ending December 25 alone saw $2.8 billion in online sales, a rise of 16 percent compared with the same week last year.

And the spending spree continued on into Christmas Day.

On December 25 there was a surge in sales of digital content and subscriptions, an area that includes downloads of … Read more

Even though the economy is still having trouble kicking in to high gear, consumers are spending boatloads of cash on gifts this holiday season.

Between November 1 and December 18, U.S. online shoppers have spent a whopping $32 billion, jumping 15 percent compared with the same period last year, when sales hit $27.8 billion, research firm ComScore reported today. Last week's sales performance was most impressive, hitting $6.3 billion during the seven-day period ended December 18 and setting a new all-time spending record for a single week. Last year, online shoppers in the U.S. spent $… Read more

The holidays are shaping up to be a big revenue generator for online companies, according to new research from ComScore.

According to the company, U.S. consumers will spend $37.6 billion online in the last two months of the year, up 15 percent compared to the $32.6 billion they spent last year. To put that figure into perspective, online customers in the U.S. spent $124.3 billion between January and October of this year.

ComScore has based some of its findings on the cash consumers have already spent. According to the company, between November 1 and November … Read more

Guess what Apple's research and development spending is as a percentage of revenue?

Chances are your answers are so far off that Apple's R&D spending could be a drinking game.

If you ask a few friends you're likely to get guesses anywhere from 4 percent to maybe 10 percent or so. The real answer: R&D represents 2.2 percent of sales.

The point is worth pondering as Apple preps its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings tomorrow. For the nine months ended June 25, Apple's R&D spending was $1.78 billion, or 2.… Read more