“Spearheading long-term research and development (R&D) to address disruptions caused by the changing software landscape, is Microsoft’s mantra in staying ahead, says company CEO Steve Ballmer,” Aaron Tan reports for ZDNet Asia.
MacDailyNews Take: Ahead in what? Sales, sure – in some cases, but in quality and innovation, no. Operating systems? Mac OS X is far ahead. Digital Media Devices? iPod is far ahead. Online media management and downloads? iTunes and iTunes Store are far ahead. Search? Google is far ahead. Game consoles? Wii is far ahead. There are more examples, but the bottom line is that Ballmer, as usual, is full of it.
Tan continues, “A key factor in embracing disruptions such as Internet applications, while staying ahead in the technology industry, is to engage in long-term research and development (R&D), he pointed out. Microsoft spends US$6 billion on R&D each year.”
MacDailyNews Take: Do Microsoft customers ever ask themselves why, if Microsoft spends US$6 billion on R&D, the best they seem to get is mediocrity? Just look at Windows Vista or the Zune. Microsoft shareholders sure ought to be asking what that annual US$6 billion is accomplishing.
Tan continues, “‘If you want to be an innovator, you have to take the long-term approach,’ [Ballmer] said. ‘There is a view that innovation happens overnight and that’s simply not the case. It took us eight to 10 years to get Windows popular…”
MacDailyNews Take: Ballmer really needs to look up the definition of “innovation.” Windows’ “popularity” simply does not equal “innovation.” Trying to make an upside-down and backwards copy of Mac OS X five years too late is not “innovation.”
Tan continues, “Ballmer said over the last 20 years, no other company has hired more top-notch computer talent than Microsoft. ‘And I don’t think anybody’s worked harder than us on that, which is also the result of hard work and commitment more than anything else,’ he added.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s painfully obvious to anyone who’s used Microsoft products that hiring “top-notch computer talent” doesn’t mean you’re properly utilizing them.
It’s really depressing that our society is set up in such a fashion that this guy could get to the position he’s in.
Research what Apple is doing and Develop obstacles as much as you can. They did not include Coby as much as you can while you are spreading FUD about everybody else.
F*ck! So many typos when I tried to be first
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D*mn You! M.X.N.T.4.1
Copycat and vendor lockin you mean, Balmer ?
I think that $6 billion he mentioned refers to Apple’s R&D budget, MS’s source of innovation.
That $6 billion includes Apple’s $2 billion.
I cannot wait to see the R&D Apple has put into Leopard. Then we will see how far behind Microsloth is. WWDC is just several weeks away.
ROFL
microsoft and innovation. Paaaleaaseee!!!!!
I’ll give Ballmer this: nobody is better at making vague and immeasurable statements.
(em)Ballmer, there’s an old saying that goes, “You can put a cat in the oven, but that don’t make it a biscuit.”
Simply saying that you’re innovative doesn’t make it so.
I’m guessing that most of that 6 billion in R&D is going toward inventing new products that are strictly for in-house use, like, oh, I dunno, indestructible chairs?
R&D = reproduce and distribute (poorly on that)
http://www.navytim.com
You know what I really hate? When Gates, and Ballmer keep on repeatedly stating to the media that they are “innovating”…it should be considered as a friggin sin for Microsoft to use that word. All that comes out of Ballmer’s mouth is lies, more lies, and some more lies after that…while Gates on the other hand, does this better, because of his known status.
Honestly, some hollywood studio should remake the movie Pirates of the Silicon Valley and I swear it would open up the eyes of millions of individuals out there who dont know the real truth about Microsoft, now that they all well know and feel the iPod halo effect…which wasen’t originally there in 1999 (when the movie was released). I’m sure this movie would be a mega-blockbuster hit as well.
Game consoles? Wii is far ahead.
The Wii is miles ahead of the 360. It has great games like the GameCube version of Zelda and…. hmmmmm that tennis game where you don’t run about… oh and probably a Pokemon title eventually.
What Microsoft means by R&D is:
Research : other competitors products clear example Tiger
& Then
Develop them as if it were their own.
They innovate in areas of copy and pasting, and they may be 10years ahead in the technique of copy and pasting…
I think they’re drunk when they come up with this stuff.
mw: hair
…
no comment needed…
Research of kinds may be, but who does it benefit: A lot of that research money goes not in to research making better products but numerous other fields. For example:
Microsoft develops ‘big brother’ software http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39787
@MXNT41 – Ditto on what you said.
This guy really is a big freakin joke.
I’m still not interested.
Maybe the fact that it took 10 years to get Windows popular speaks to the issue of quality.
As Steve J said… if it was just a matter of money, Microsoft would be able to make great products.
And after that comment I’m not surprised Ballmer’s spurting about innovation – as if it’s enough to talk and spin your way into being innovative..!
Too little too late Microsoft. You blew it.
Stays ahead of who and with what product?
We’ve seen what wonders that throwing billions of dollars into R&D did for Shista
1. How do you tell if Ballmer is lying? Watch his lips, if they move, he’s lying.
Seriously, Ballmer has a serious problem with factual accuracy, as do all Microsoft people authorized to talk to the press.
2. Microsoft “R&D”, no disrespect to the people working there, is a busywork department, generally – their work doesn’t make it into products.
I refuse to call reverse engineering R&D
(yes, I know, I’m being picky. Yes I know all companies do some reverse engineering. But I don’t think any major company does a much as Microsoft, and no major company shamelessly lies about it like Microsoft does).
Microsoft “innovation” is primarily done at other, outside of Microsoft locations, especially Cupertino. Unfortunately, the legal framework for payment of this innovation isn’t working very well – Microsoft doesn’t pay for it, but that is another story.
“‘There is a view that innovation happens overnight “
Sounds like a major cop-out to me.
Translation: don’t expect anything innovative to come from MS as long as I’m CEO.
He said it in plain Englidsh. The purpose of R&D at Micro$oft is to avoid disruptions cause by changes in the software landscape. No vision of pushing human potential, empowerment of the user, or doing things better than they have been. Their focus is on maintaining their monopoly position by reacting to external changes. If someone else innovates, they react and cover the position.
The reason anti-trust laws were created was to prevent companies from using their overwhelming market position to prevent competition. Competition can be good for consumers on the price level. It can also be good for them at the innovation level. How much better for Micro$oft if there was not all this innovation, change in the software landscape, to “address.” It would save $6 Billion a year in R&D and far more than that in the costs of acquiring companies with innovative products.
In Micro$oft we have a classic case of the abuse of monopoly power. When was the last time the Federal Government exercised some real leadership in the anti-trust area? The break up of ATT? They put some pressure on IBM in the 1970’s I think. I do not know much about what they were able to accomplish. I seem to remember IBM was preventing clients from buying anyone else’s hardware to use on an IBM main frame.
What does microsoft do in the face of the threat of defections to open source software? Threaten litigation for patent infringement with the implication that anyone who uses open source operating systems or applications could be defending themselves against an army of lawyers with billions more to spend.
Copyright infringement? The level of hypocrisy is staggering.
It is time something was done about Micro$oft.
Why not say it how it really is? MS got the jump on the PC industry with the MSDOS which they licensed to everybody who made cheap systems. They had no serious competition for many years. it is only now that OSX and Linux are starting to make significant inroads on Windows. If Apple ever starts to license OSX to select, high quality manufacturers then MS will really be in trouble. This is, however, an unlikely scenario. The introduction of the iPod and the iPhone are only the beginning of what I suspect will be a long line of innovative devices including the most advanced computer systems. This strategy, while not wasting energy competing directly with MS, will allow Apple to continue it’s growth while MS slowly becomes irrelevant.
brah hahhahaha…..cough….cough…..hahahahah….I…I…can’t breath….h…e…l….p…hahahahaha…..ROFLMAO……!
The plane, the plane, what fantasy island is Balmer living on anyways? $6 BILLION for R&D! WOW! That’s a lot of money wasted from what I see from the products coming out. MDN is right, the investors should look at all the money waste that is going on at Microsoft. The products sure don’t equal that kind of money that’s for sure. No wonder why they have to charge $400 for Windows now. That’s nearly triple the price of OSX at $129
Ballmer is on a roll today.
Microsoft buys Tellme Networks, so now that makes them an “innovator” in voice technology.
Microsoft buys Azyxxi and Medstory, so now that makes them an “innovator” in health information.
Microsoft buys ScreenTonic and aQuantive, so now that makes them an “innovator” in ad networks.
R&D is not, as monkeyboy puts it, how M$ stays “ahead.”
BUYING EVERY OTHER FRICKIN COMPANY ON THE PLANET is how M$ stays “ahead.”
MW: “method” as in “we already know your company’s methods, monkeyboy, so can the B.S.”
R&D is how Microsoft stays ahead??? Now that’s funny!!!
@BrainFart
The Wii is most definitely ahead of the 360. The Wii has dominated sales, both hardware and software, for the past 5 months. In fact, in April, Nintendo led in every single category. The most handhelds, the most consoles, the most portable software, the most consol software. Yes, the 360 has sold more units than the Wii, but it was also released a year prior. The Wii has sold 3/4 the amount of the 360 in less than half the same time period.
Synonyms
R&D: theft, graft, lie, felony, swindle, price gouging, plagiarism, newspeak, inside joke (Times New Roman)
I actually laughed out loud when I read this headline.e.
Please MDN.. You should excersice sensorship just a little. Do not show that hidious face anymore.
They probably spend the $6 billion on innovative new ways to F**k over the competition.
Steve is a great story teller!
Fiction, that is!
Windows is number one through being sold with ever PC since the early 80’s. People had no choice. The masses were brainwashed over the years to think Windows is it and most people fear change.
That is how they stay ahead, it requires no work any more on their part what so ever.
C’mon guys …
Let’s all ssupport MicroCrap R & D …
Buy AAPL !!
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Send all questions to Microsoft R&D Dept.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino Ca. 95014
What a joke.
“the Microsoft’s head honcho also noted that many IT companies do not commit themselves to building multiple competencies. ‘When companies do something well, they usually map everything else to that model and [are] not the least embracing disruptions,’ he said.”
Wow! Talk about a Freudian slip. Is that not exactly the entire modus operandi of MS—tie everything into Windows in a ham handed attempt to stop disruptive technologies? Um, except the part about doing something well. It’s even more pathetic when you do do nothing well and try to tie everything into a mediocre product How lame can can this guy get?
Ballmer is my favorite fat, incompetent, ethically challenged CEO.
“Spearheading long-term research and development (R&D) to address disruptions caused by the changing software landscape…”
Of course, the “disruptions” he is referring to are Apple products.
The other point that seems to be missed here is that if Microsoft were truly innovating, their own products would be the ones CAUSING the disruptions in “the changing software landscape”, but instead they are so far behind that they are having to look at long-term strategies to catch up rather than leading the pack.
Staying AHEAD??
Ahead of WHAT? Getting run over by a MAC TRUCK?!
: )
Bwahahahaha!
Beep, beep Balmer–and it ain’t the Road Runner pulling up behind your fat ass.
I looked at what our competitors had done …I looked and Iooked and after looking some more I felt I had done enough looking ….I mean research. Then, I thought about it …I thought about it and I thought about it …and after thinking some more I felt I had done enough thinking …my brain was so, so tired. I took a long nap. I dreamed I was looking into the night sky when I saw an image of Steve Jobs revolving around the Earth where I would have expected the moon. His eyes were searching …searching for my R&D ….but he couldn’t find it …it was all in my head. No one can find my R&D because it’s in my head. That’s my secret …yeah, me and Gates ..we got secrets in our heads.
Geez! . . . You guys don’t remember? MS lost a major anti-trust decision a few years back. It was appealed, and a lot of the original penalty was negated. And it seems that the present Justice Department and conservative courts aren’t interested in enforcing even the remaining penalties. They were (MW) turned!