I'm not an accountant but they should be able to capitalize expenses incurred when it's an investment, ie, since it's not really a normal expense profit should not be affected.

I'm not sure how that works with R&D engineering salaries - that might impact their profits even if it's an investment.

I feel like a large technology company should spend a large but consistent amount of money on R&D - I don't like wild swings either way.

Also not an accountant, but i believe you two are talking differently about gaap and nongaap profit. The latter can immediately write of R&D, where as GAAP has rules around deprecation of investments.