Edible Apple

Apple on Wednesday filed its 2010 annual report with the SEC, and as usual, there are a few interesting nuggets of information to be had.

First, Apple spent a boatload on advertising this past year – a whopping $691 million in total. By way of comparison, Apple spent only $501 million in 2009 and $486 million in 2008. Clearly, Apple decided to go all out on advertising in 2010, which makes sense given the launch of two new exciting new products in the iPhone 4 and the iPad.

But lest you think that Apple is going advertising crazy, the percentage of money spent on advertising compared to Apple revenue actually went down in 2010. More specifically, only 1% of Apple’s 2010 revenue went towards advertising costs. Back in 2001, in contrast, that percentage was 5%.

Apple’s $691 million figure no doubt sounds astronomical, but TechCrunch notes that it’s not even half of the amount spent by Microsoft on advertising in 2010. Also, rumor has it that Redmond may spend upwards of $1 billion on Windows Phone 7 advertising alone.

So what other tidbits can we glean from Apple’s SEC filing?

Well, Apple is also ramping up the number of folks under its employ. Apple notes that as of September 25 2010, it had around 46,000 full time employees under its care, a 35% increase year over year.

You can pour over Apple’s annual report with the SEC over here. There’s a lot to take in, and we’ll have more on it tomorrow.