Microsoft Research: 'An investment in survival'
Microsoft Research head Rick Rashid and Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie on Tuesday kick off TechFest, Microsoft's internal science fair.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET Networks)REDMOND, Wash.--Although some companies might see basic research as something to put on the chopping block in tough economic times, Microsoft's top strategy officer argued Tuesday that's the worst place to cut.
Craig Mundie, Microsoft chief research and strategy officer, said companies that slash research do so at their own peril.
"A great many companies have a fairly short lifespan," Mundie said, kicking off the company's annual TechFest internal science fair. Even many big, great companies only last 30 years or so, he said.
"The company would struggle I think to survive and certainly to prosper if we didn't have the research investment," Mundie said.
Microsoft Research head Rick Rashid put it more bluntly.
"It's really about an investment in survival," Rashid said.
He noted that in the early days of the software business, when Microsoft had only a few thousand workers, it made a decision to start up its basic research operation. Other companies in the business, he said, made a different choice.
"Most of those competitors aren't with us anymore," Rashid said.
Asked which of the technologies on display this week are likely to help Microsoft move beyond the recession, Mundie pointed to some of the types of new computer interfaces that will help the industry move beyond the mouse and keyboard.
Rashid, meanwhile, said it's hard to know which research bets will pay off.
"You invest in basic research precisely because you don't know what the future is going to hold," he said. "If you knew what you were going to get, it wouldn't be basic research."
Among the several dozen projects on display to the press Tuesday is an effort to build a better thesaurus that CNET News covered last week.
Microsoft employees will have a look and an even broader assortment of technologies on display starting Wednesday.
The goal of TechFest is to expose those in Microsoft's product groups to what is cooking in the labs.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
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Well, worry from anyone not making a living making software for MS.
You are correct, however, on MS's uptake of results from research. They seem to have a 'wow that's cool lets put it on a shelf for a few years' attitude.
Nah - current hype is just that... hype, coupled with the feverish projections of hope by pundit and fanboy alike. Once it releases, we'll see what folks make of it (Proof? Notice that there's no real word or buzz one way or the other coming out of Enterprise, and not much hype coming from pundit circles outside of known MSFT fanboy territory...)
Technically, there's no real wonder at all: it's Vista, Mark II. Those are already known quantities by now - both in programming and in IT, and nothing much else has changed under the hood.
The story, however, is about researching for the future. It's about trying different areas and see what develops out of it. If people fixated only on the present, then nothing would get done and there would be no improvement. Even Apple does the same sort of thing- research groups try different technologies and see what comes out of it. If they didn't, then we wouldn't have OS X at all, and I think you'll have to agree that was a project worth doing.
The buzz about Win7 is positive. I say let it succeed or fail on its own merits and not by biased pundits such as you or myself. We both want it to have problems- I, because my job depends on fixing problems caused by an OS, and you, because you simply hate Microsoft.
All this stuff has different audiences, which often want diametrically-opposed results, back-compatibility chief among them. If M/S thinks something isn't ready for prime time, I'm inclined to not want it rushed out, right? But in the meantime, most machines available in stores have 64-bit Vista installed, they work, and the world hasn't ended----they're a lot more stable than the economy.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/rfcauthor.htm
see how many RFCs were written by Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Cisco and other real innovative companies that do real R&D.
then check how many RFCs were written by Apple.
truth hurts. doesn't it?
- by t8 April 4, 2009 11:46 PM PDT
- Yes the truth hurts. The iPod comes out, then the Zune. Apple OS features show up in Windows. Microsoft is like that kid who looks at your answers in an exam because he can't answer them himself..
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