The Baltimore Sun’s David Zeiler says that Apple’s TV ads that lampoon the amount of money Microsoft is spending on its Vista ad campaign versus fixing the broken operating system are justified.
“The point of Apple’s TV spots is that Microsoft should be devoting more resources to making Vista better for users rather than making ads to boost their self-esteem,” Zeiler reports.
Zeiler also explores an interesting ancillary point, “In Microsoft’s fiscal year 2008 (which ended June 30), it spent just under 1.986 percent of its revenue on advertising but 13.5 percent on R&D. Apple, in its 2007 fiscal year, the most recent for which we have complete data, spent 1.945 percent of its revenue on advertising and a mere 3.25 percent on R&D.”
“Microsoft outspends Apple by every measure. In raw dollars, Microsoft outspent Apple $7.121 billion to $782 million in 2007 — a ratio of more that 9 to 1. As a percentage of revenue, Microsoft outspends Apple by about 4 to 1, 13.5 percent to 3.41 percent,” Zeiler reports. “Contrary to what Apple implies in its ads, Microsoft literally spends billions on the development of products like Vista and Office.”
Zeiler asks, “Sad, isn’t it?”
“Apple spends far, far less money on R&D, but look at what it has delivered over the past few years: Mac OS X Leopard, Intel-based Macs, the iPod Touch and iPhone, the innovative MacBook manufacturing technology unveiled just two weeks ago,” Zeiler reports. “More to the point, Apple regularly delivers products and services, such as the iTunes Store and the iPhone, that shake up entire industries. When was the last time Microsoft did that?”
Zeiler wonders, “What does Microsoft have to show for its billions invested in R&D? Vista? Office 2007? Hardly groundbreaking. The Zune? A decent MP3 player, but it’s had minimal impact on its market. And so it goes with Microsoft’s product line. Almost in defiance of the prodigious amounts of money the company invests, Redmond’s creations rarely have the capacity to excite. Even the celebrated Xbox is little more than another game console.”
MacDailyNews Take: Maybe paying off reviewers, pundits, and “inquiry analysts” along with funding astroturfers is part of Microsoft’s R&D budget?
As for Xbox:
• Pioneer Press reviews Apple TV 2.0: A joy to use (works flawlessly, unlike Microsoft’s Xbox Live) – February 27, 2008
• Serious flaws in Xbox 360 hardware to cost Microsoft at least $1 billion – July 06, 2007
• Analyst Ehrenberg: Microsoft’s Xbox 360: Failure-in-a-Box – April 18, 2007
• Microsoft sued over defective Xbox 360 consoles, suit alleges units prone to freeze ups, overheating – December 05, 2005
• Microsoft Xbox 360 ‘inspired’ by many of Apple Computer’s ideas – May 13, 2005
• Mac users should not buy Microsoft software (or hardware) – May 16, 2003
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: “It’s not how much you spend, but how well you spend.” – MacDailyNews Take, March 15, 2006
That said, we must also reiterate our favorite toast: “May Steve Ballmer remain Microsoft CEO for as long as it takes!”
Microsoft’s R&D;Budget:
How to get people to like your products when they suck.™
Microsoft’s Marketing Budget:
How to get people to (be forced to) buy your products when they suck.™
It is a fascinating question. You look at Microsoft’s R&D;budget, and you look at what’s coming out the doors. Where’s the money going?
Possibility 1: It costs a lot to develop anything for the hideously complex hardware environment Windows and Windows software operates in.
Possibility 2: Some of what Microsoft calls R&D;is what other companies might call Market Research.
Possibility 3: Blue sky tech projects that are never expected to lead to shipping products. Normally the domain of think tanks that will license the ideas to someone who thinks they can develop something from it (Xerox PARC and the GUI), it’s possible Microsoft has something like this in house and their obsession with trade secrets means no one knows.
Possibility 4: No long term strategy or persistent goals to direct research results in a lot of projects that never produce a final product.
Possibility 5: Way too many Chiefs and not enough Indians.
Possibility 6: The überproject that will secure Microsoft’s dominance of everything everywhere for ever. To be unveiled next Tuesday.
Market dominance didn’t come out of the R&D department.
“Market dominance, you little twerps.”
LOL – and you’re here WHY????
‘Cause your PC sucks, that’s why.
You want one, just can’t afford one.
Or did you get kicked out of the Apple Store for smelling so badly?
Never occurs to the Jobsian sycophants that M$ plays in places Apples dares not tread; hell, M$’s server and tools division alone does $4 billion in profit a year. Where is Apple’s version of Exchange? Sharepoint? Dynamics? Virtualization? Where are their corporate integrative environment suites? If glossy screens, stripped-out Firewire and a heavier, larger MacBook Pro is what you get for Apple’s R&D;, that’s not much to brag about.
Apple is very good at what they do and they make very good profit doing it; let’s just not pretend that they do everything M$ does.
MS R&D;’ers must all be union members.
Look at it this way:
When Obama wins and Big Labor gets a quantum boost from his policies, many of us will find ourselves unionized. Like it or not.
Whether that’ll turn corporate America into the equivalent of MS’s R & D department will have to be seen.
You sound like a Detroit executive circa 1957, i.e. “Those jokey little imports will NEVER match our V-8 chromemobiles…”. Indeed, places where others dare not tread.
Good thing MS’ servers and tools division is making such good profit.
The R & D black hole needs it for their $7 billion tab.
“let’s just not pretend that they do everything M$ does.”
Let’s hope they never do. IT is a vast wasteland where profits go to die, and creativity drowns in mediocrity. Nothing done there is worth mentioning, let alone striving to mimic.
The point that no one has touched on correctly corresponds to the number of dollars thrown at the number of products each company supports. For instance, if I am Toyota and I am supporting a global operation – under several divisions and nameplates – then of course I am going to spend more than a rival that competes with me in fewer areas. However, if the comparison is based upon percentage of revenues generated by a product to the R&D;costs incurred, you could ascertain a base to compare Apple’s efficiencies (or lack thereof) to Microsoft’s efficiencies (or lack thereof).
Without grasping the concept of efficiency, no comparisons can be made. The article title itself perpetuates this flaw by implying that R&D;dollars at MS are greater than at Apple (and that’s supposed to mean something?). This logical fallacy is readily jumped upon by those in the Apple Fanboi Choir. However, choirs most likely want to hear themselves sing as opposed to come up with any decent thought. It’s like expecting Rush Limbaugh to come up with a viable economic plan. It’s just not going to happen.
Might Apple be more efficient at churning out iPhone software compared to MS creating a gaming system? That’s immaterial because it is a different line of products competing in a different marketplace. Was the R&D;for the iphone greater the BlackBerry Curve? That would be a viable comparison.
This is not about bashing Apple or supporting MS. Just that drinking the kool-aid for any company is never a wise decision. Especially when your line of argumentation is build on fallacy.
You’d be surprised at some of the stuff Microsoft has in its new technology wing. Fox did a special on it, check it out – here. That thing with the water cannon and the robotic eyes was pretty amazing.
Methinks Microshaft is using “aerospace accounting”, where the asswipe the receptionists use is charged as an “R&D;expense.”
Can some one tell me how many photocopiers has MS bougth with all that money.
The only real “R&D;” for Microsoft is how to find new ways to trick and coerce its current customers into continuing to use Windows and Office.
At one time, a typical Windows user I know tried to convince me that Apple was dead in the water because it was Microsoft’s huge resources and the resources of all Windows developers VERSUS Apple’s limited resources and the relatively small number of Mac OS developers.
What actually happened was the clear victory of quality over quantity. Aimless and unfocused Microsoft (and its hoard of Windows developers) outdone by laser-focused Apple (and it’s loyal band of Mac developers). And now, its happening again (only faster) with the mobile platform.
Lemme see!
<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youporngay.com:80/watch/189496/my-first-time-swallowing/?from=related3&al=2&from_id=185748″></param></param><embed src=”http://www.youporngay.com:80/watch/189496/my-first-time-swallowing/?from=related3&al=2&from_id=185748″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>
humpy
Aimless and unfocused Microsoft (and its hoard of Windows developers) outdone by laser-focused Apple (and it’s loyal band of Mac developers).
Hahahahaha
Have fun with your merry men retard Mac developers. Maybe if you all work really hard you can come up with a screen saver or something.
@ Another IT Guy
Apple also goes where Microsoft rarely ventures: hardware design and manufacturing. Jonathan Ive’s people do nothing but hardware design. Where is Microsoft’s equivalent to that? The Zune? Come on! X-box? Gets whipped by Wii.
Bottom line, R&D;at MS is a resource monger, badly in need of a shake-up, much like Apple’s R&D;was in 1997.
of course, that would be a resource hogger, not monger.
My bad.
> Maybe if you all work really hard you can come up with a screen saver or something.
Maybe if Microsoft actually did “research and development,” it could come up with a release of Windows that people actually want to use (and upgrade to). If things continue as is, Windows developers (including Apple) will be supporting XP for the next 10 years, because XP will still have most of the remaining Windows users.
And maybe if most Windows developers were not so lethargic, they would actually care enough to start developing for Mac OS X (or the iPhone). Oh wait… please excuse me. I think it’s starting.
It’s no illusion to me why Apple gets more out of its R&D;dollars than Microsoft. What would you rather have, Steve Jobs yelling at you to produce the next coolest thing ever, or Sweaty Uncle Fester yelling at you to support his dream of world domination.
I swear, if MS would just focus on making good products rather than eliminating the competition, they would solve their own problem…
microsoft’s R&D;consists of purchasing other companies for their products (not techs or patents, but actual finished products) and then rebranded with windows, a windows os to make it suck even more.
considering that buying whole companies is expensive,i can see where the money is going to.
if they bought Yahoo, it would have come out of the R&D;budget.