Stockholders' Equity, Comprehensive Income and Share-Based Compensation (Details Textuals) (USD $)	1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Jan. 27, 2013 Y employee_stock_purchase_plans	Jan. 29, 2012	Mar. 05, 2012
Stockholders' Equity Comprehensive Income and Share-Based Compensation (Textuals) [Abstract]
Amount authorized by Board of directors to repurchase shares				$ 3,000,000,000
Period of stock repurchase program (in years)				three years
Remaining number of shares authorized to be repurchased		1,800,000,000
Cash dividend declared	$ 0.09
Dividend declared, amount		108,000,000	103,000,000
Number of employee stock purchase plans		2
Total unrecognized compensation expense		$ 340,000,000
Weighted average period for unrecognized compensation expense to be recognized (in years)		2.8
Number of shares available for grant (in shares)		182,000,000
Stock options scheduled to be vested		over three to four years
Stock options scheduled to expire		no later than seven years from the grant date
Assumed in Varian acquisition (in shares)			5,000,000
Additional performance-based awards to be earned upon certain levels of achievment (in shares)		3,000,000
Purchase price in percent of the lower of the fair market value of Applied common stock		85.00%
Purchase period for ESPP (in months)		6-month
Number of shares issued under the ESPP		0	0
Employee Stock Purchase Plan [Member]
Stockholders' Equity Comprehensive Income and Share-Based Compensation (Textuals) [Abstract]
Number of shares available for grant (in shares)		47,000,000