Comments on: Microsoft R&D hits all-time high, meaning what?

Redmond spends a lot on research and development. But its future is so tied up in protecting its past that it's unlikely to ever unleash true innovations that could destabilize the desktop.

[sal-magnone]

That was a bit narrow.

Protecting the past is highly profitable, fairly easy considering the fragmented competition, and as shown by Apple- people are still really interested in what that box on their desk can do with a traditional operating system,

That being said, it's pretty obvious that MS is moving beyond the desktop - Game consoles, hand held devices, SYNC and other auto based products, cluster based computing, sphere and related products, OLPC-type machines, SaaS, and the cloud.

This isn't the big bad monolithic 1980s/1990s IBM, this is the company that helped bring that IBM crashing down. Totally different mindset.

I don't know what exactly they will do or how well of course, but given their free cash flow and market breathe, they don't have to be first, second, third, or the best to thrive and/or dominate.

[rapier1]

MS is in a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. If they innovate in such a way that results in significant incompatibilities with the installed user base everyone gets up in arms. Adoption in critical sectors will lag because no one wants to take the plunge on unknown tech that will increase TCO. People are still angry abut 8 year old printers that are no longer supported by the manufacturer not working properly under Vista. On the other hand, if there isn't radical innovation then the tech leaders are upset because there isn't any sign of substantial progress; even though they tend to be the ones complaining the loudest about the 8 year old printers. What's really interesting is that many of the leaders dismiss the user interface work as nothing more than eye candy but are generally unaware of what's happening under the surface.

That being said, there is a big push in MS to work on greater parallelism in code to really handle a large number of processing cores properly. Many people don't understand that you can't just throw more cores at an application and expect performance to improve unless its properly parallelized. Its also not very easy to parallelize operations that are ostensibly serial in nature. This means its actually a field rich with research potential and MS is putting a lot of money into it.

[rmva]

Intesesting comment. What does it mean, exactly?

[tzs108]

You are a bit confused about what MS Research does. They are NOT a product R&D group. They are more like a university computer science department without the students. Their output is papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and presentations at scientific conferences.

[The_happy_switcher]

Meaning...that they don't know what to invest in? They constantly lag ALL technological innovation world-wide and spend most of their time copying others.

[sal-magnone]

So MS has innovated nothing? Any idea how many small companies they have invested in or bought in the last 25 years? Including that one failing company that really needed the money, what's the name, oh yes, APPLE.

While you are mulling that over, consider this- even if MS never innovated anything, so what? This is not about art for the sake of art, or innovation for the sake of innovation. It's about $$; and that puts them right on target.

[kmomrik]

I'm sorry, but all I see when I read garbage like this is "blah blah... Microsoft BAD! Apple/Linux/ GOOD!... blah blah... Microsoft OLD BORING! Apple/Linux/ NEW EXCITING!" I'm not questioning your intelligence, because I'd like to believe that anyone who chooses to have an opinion, chooses that opinion intelligently... HOWEVER, it does seem like a 5th grade argument sometimes... "my daddy is better than your daddy... yeah, well, my daddy did that first/better/longer".

Contrary to popular belief, Apple did not invent the computer or the portable music player or the multi-function cell phone. They "copy" ideas just like any other company. The only thing is... it is not copying. Using a pre-existing idea to build a product is not a crime unless it is a direct violation of a patent or copyright. BASF used to have (maybe still does have) a very telling motto "BASF doesn't make alot of the products you use, we make the products you use BETTER".

I've been around enough to know that nothing I (or anyone else for that matter) say will make anyone stand up and go "hey, you know what, I am being a little foolish... perhaps there CAN exist a company that 'competes' with the company that I love and adore but isn't evil". Likewise, I highly doubt that all the people that will want to post a reply to this and tell me out stupid my ideas are and how much better Apple/Linux, etc. are than Windows will change my mind and make me give up the convenience and compatibility of Windows. Not likely. People are creatures of habit, we'll do as we do until we can't do anymore.

[bluerain44]

Well, this is good news if you're a researcher. :)

[The_Decider]

Historically MS R&D has been mainly an academic exercise.

I think the uptick on investment in this department means that MS is throwing as much crap to the wall as they can to see what sticks.

After all, MS has shown 0 ability to understand that future of computing. For the past few years they have simply been following the trends without understanding why or how. I think this is their attempt to try and be relevant again.

[eyemroot]

It is obvious where that money is going, Bill Gates himself explained it on-stage with Steve Jobs in 2007 @ D. The seamless integration between your viewing/using experiences, the handheld, the desktop and the living room - not to mention product prototyping and OS re-development. You can be guaranteed that since Microsoft has a history of purchasing other companies innovations, their technology acquisitions make up at least 1/3 of that. Wake up, tell your editor to get off your back because you don't have a valid point today and quit writing drivel.

[cheezr]

come on Matt, this is not fair: two decent columns in two days. What have you done with the real Matt Asay?


CZR

[foomonkey249702348]

What else is there in a software company other than R&D? Sales? It's not like there are big factories to keep up...