Apple Inc. in Ottawa: Slicing through the speculation

Ottawa Citizen ^ | February 1, 2016 | By VITO PILIECI

[Swordmaker]

With Apple Inc.’s intentions still unclear, there is much speculation surrounding exactly what the arrival of the global technology heavyweight could mean to Ottawa’s tech sector.

Apple has remained silent about its plans for a 22,000-square-foot space under renovation in Kanata, or how its new vice-president of core operating systems, Sébastian Marineau-Mes, will build out the company’s Ottawa team.

But in the rumours and discussion spurred by Apple’s pending arrival, some common themes are emerging. The most prominent is that its current space is just the beginning of what will become a much larger research and development centre that could employ as many as 200.

That isn’t so far-fetched. Apple is on a major research and development expansion, especially as it works toward creating new products, including some sort of Apple car or automotive-related product or service.

It has been luring talent from some of the world’s top car companies, including Ford, Volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler. There have been discussions between Apple and BMW. It has hired engineers from electric car companies including Tesla Motor Co., so much so that some of Tesla’s development initiatives have been affected.  

And Apple appears to be finally looking outside its monster campus in Cupertino, California, for new bases of operation.

It recently announced new R and D facilities in Yokohama, Japan. In February it announced that its Herzliya, Israel, facility had grown to 700 employees, making it Apple’s second-largest R and D lab, and a research team in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that works on the Siri speech recognition system has been expanded. And it is considering building a massive R and D centre in San Jose, Calif.

Couple all of this with the hard financial facts.

According to Apple’s most recent financial filings, research and development expenses grew to $2.4 billion U.S. in the quarter ending in December, a 27-per-cent increase over the same quarter one year earlier. In fiscal 2015, R and D spending rose 34 per cent over 2014 levels to $8.1 billion U.S.

Apple is aggressively gearing up for something big.

With QNX Software Systems Inc. across the street in Kanata, and with Marineau-Mes, an automotive software and operating systems expert and former QNX executive, in Apple’s employ, it’s not difficult to envision the third-floor office at 411 Leggett Dr. transforming into something much grander.

Whether it will all work out as Apple hopes is another issue. Glenn Rowe, executive director of Ivey Publishing at Western University, studies employee movement among organizations. According to Rowe, superstar performers at one organization might be highly prized by competitors, but it’s often difficult for them to perform up to the same standards somewhere else. Rowe believes that even the brightest stars of an organization function as part of a team. If they are removed from the support of their teammates, they falter.

“Apple has a lot of money and a lot of free cash, and if they want to spend it won’t hurt them, but it may not work out in the long run,” said Rowe, adding that employees being wooed should consider their options carefully. “Whether it is a good strategic move is a different question.”

Still, Apple is the company that brought a revolution to the personal computer in 1984. It upended the market for personal music players in 2001 with the iPod, and that same year it forever changed the way we buy music with iTunes. The 2007 release of the iPhone changed the way people think of mobile devices as a whole. And when the iPad arrived in 2009, crowds lined up for the first time to acquire a tablet computer.

None of these was a new device. None was even a new idea. But they were markets in which the company had no experience, and Apple brought in talent and refined ideas from other businesses and ultimately did it better than anyone else. Which is why if Apple has its sights â€” and its massive $200 billion U.S. cash reserves â€” on making a car, established players need to take notice.

Still, any automobile or automotive platform that Apple might make will only be as good as the software on which it runs. Which brings us back to Ottawa and Marineau-Mes and his former company. QNX’s software runs on more than 50 per cent of the automobiles on the road today. Its superiority was responsible for the demise of Microsoft Corp.’s much hyped Sync in-car operating system that was primarily associated with Ford.

The people at QNX know what they’re doing, and Apple knows it. If Apple is preparing to give the world some bold new brand of automobile, then Ottawa’s technology sector is poised to help in its delivery.

[UCANSEE2]

Another Trump promise coming to fruition, and he isn’t even President.

[Swordmaker]

Apple opening a 22,000 square foot development center in Ottawa, Canada, where QNX is located. Likely related to the Auto Industry and CarPlay. -- PING!

Apple CarPlay Development Center in Canada?
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[Mark17]

Thanks for posting.