Yeah, some other time...
Apple's decision to open source the Swift programming language last year suggests the company isn't entirely hermetic
There is a world of difference between open sourcing software and allowing staff to write academic papers and publish them. I have been on both sides of the fence - academia and commercial and I am yet to see a company that has anything even remotely approaching the mentality needed to work with top level academic talent in CS or math.
As a mental exercise, try this one for laughs: "I will write all documents in LaTeX". This is essential if you want to publish them in a self-respecting mathematics or CS publication. Now try that in a company Engineering department (regardless of the engineering type). Just invite me to sell tickets when you are explaining this to the PHB in charge of the department why the documents are not in Microsh*t word as mandated by policy. No comments on trying to do formulae in something that till this day cannot correctly format the the phrase "f*ck off" with correct kerning. Bonus points for the mental exercise of doing it in Apple/Google/etc and not using the glorious Words/GoogleDocs/etc (none of which can do proper math).
This is just to start with. If you somehow manage to write said paper and are given the time to do it without being savaged on PR review why you are not providing daily agile standup feedback on how it is progressing, now try to get IPR clearance from legal to publish it.
I am not even going to discuss the idea of collaborating with other researchers on something a company may claim an IPR on, participating in collaborative projects, etc.
The gap between the academic and commercial worlds is not narrowing over time. It is actually growing. So good luck on any such ideas. I do not see it flying any time soon.
