Later on in the article, they note that Apple gets the best bang for the buck in R&D. The actual dollars spent on R&D is increasing, it's just not increasing as fast as the profits. They also point out that if Apple tried to increase R&D as quickly as they've increased profits, they'd have a lot of wasted money (Quick! Research SOMETHING!). Research without direction of some sort is pointless. It think Jobs learned his lesson not to let vision outrun technology. Apple stays ahead of the curve now, but not so far ahead that the hardware can't keep up with the design ideas.
"Mr. Jobs., a guy down in maintenance has an idea for a new Apple product... the Apple iToilet."
"Great idea! Here! Take this spare $100,000,000 of shareholders money and invest it in iToilet research!"