California’s Apple Inc (www.apple.com) is to open a new R&D facility in China. This will bring together engineers from some of Apple’s existing centres, the company said during CEO Tim Cook’s recent visit to Beijing.

It also said: “The centre will open later this year, bringing together our engineering and operations teams in China, as we develop advanced technologies and services for our products.”

Apple has more than doubled its number of sites in China since 2011 — to 45 — so this development could involve some consolidation. The company’s spending on R&D has quadrupled in the same time-frame, and investors are said to be eager to see results from other projects that Apple is working on.

The company has thousands of engineers working on a self-driving car; it is also looking at developing virtual and augmented reality as potential new sources of revenue.

China has become an attractive location to develop new products. The total spend on manufacturing R&D in China grew from $92 billion in 2008 to $243 billion in 2013, according to the OECD.

The corresponding figures in the USA were $204 billion in 2008 and $221 billion in 2013.