Apple Planning Surge in Retail and Cloud Spending in 2012

Last week, Apple released its annual financial report for fiscal 2011, revealing some interesting facts. Moreover, the report includes some Apple's planned capital expenditures for fiscal 2012

The Company’s capital expenditures were $4.6 billion during 2011, consisting of approximately $614 million for retail store facilities and $4.0 billion for other capital expenditures, including product tooling and manufacturing process equipment, real estate for the future development of the Company’s second corporate campus, and other corporate facilities and infrastructure.

The Company anticipates utilizing approximately $8.0 billion for capital expenditures during 2012, including approximately $900 million for retail store facilities and approximately $7.1 billion for product tooling and manufacturing process equipment, and corporate facilities and infrastructure, including information systems hardware, software and enhancements.

In 2012, Apple plans to increase its expenses by 74%. That is bases on the company’s increased interest in cloud-based technology and needs of retails stores and other infrastructure needs. During fiscal 2012, Apple is said to open forty new retail stores a replace some existing stores. Other infrastructure needs include the solar farm that Apple is building at North Carolina data center and the new corporate “spaceship” campus in Cupertino.