Apple could have Israeli research center by end of February
updated 01:55 pm EST, Wed January 25, 2012
Company reportedly hiring engineers
Apple is hoping to open a research center in Haifa, Israel by the end of February, local business publication Calcalist reports. The facility will allegedly find its home in the Matam district to the south, in the vicinity of other research centers for companies like Intel and Microsoft. Apple is said to have already received "several hundred" resumes for a variety chip engineering positions, with a focus on electrical circuits, analogue and hardware testing and verification.
Calcalist states that the research center has no connection to Apple's buyout of Anobit, an Israeli company specializing in memory technology. People from Anobit are in fact not expected to be involved with the new Haifa center at all. On Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook commented that Anobit would be folded into the company's main hardware engineering unit.
In December, Apple's senior research VP, Ed Frank, is reported to have been touring Israel with a research facility in mind. If so the company has moved relatively quickly on the prospect, and presumably into an existing office space rather than a new building.
