The passing of Steve Jobs put casted an immediate shadow over Apple and many were wondering if the company would lose much of its luster. Based on the figures recently released to shareholders, nothing of the sort looks set to happen.

In a recent filing to the SEC, Apple disclosed among other things, that it is currently sitting on $81.5 billion in cash and marketable securities and other cash equivalents. This is surely good news for shareholders, because many had predicted that Apple would miss key targets for the fiscal year 2011. Instead of missing targets, Apple has continued to return strong numbers, even pulling in $37.5 billion in cash profits.

To put things in perspective, Amazon, the retail giant has just over $2 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Of course, both companies are in entirely different fields of endeavour, but given the overlap in some areas, Apple is really doing well.

Much of Apple’s success looks steeped in its penchant for investing in R&D and according to the filing, the company spent over $2.4 billion on R&D for the fiscal year 2011. This is up on 2010 expenditure which came in at little over $1.8 billion. No doubt the company will continue to make progress with its products and with platforms like the Apple iOS5 doing so well at the moment, the company should have a healthy start to 2012.

Do you think Apple will still dominate with Steve Jobs gone? Share your thoughts with us below.

(Source: sitetrail.com)

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