Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 7th Nov 2009 00:24 UTC
Whether you like Microsoft or not, the Redmond giant does have one thing going for it: the company's research division. Working together with several universities and other institutions, Microsoft Research works on the soft and hardware of the future, ranging from research operating systems to insanely cool things like what Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie showed off during the Microsoft College Tour '09 (more videos).
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Member since:2005-07-22
If half the marketing budget of MS in the last 10 years was spend on actual research, we'd laugh about 'minority report' interfaces by now.
I laugh about those interfaces now. They don't work, as you need to move your arms up and down, and that stresses too much to do it all day for 8 hours or more. Surely they are pretty, but not practical for work. For home use and multimedia they would work better.
Member since:
2005-07-07
RANT (didn't have enough sleep):
I'm sorry but I'm not impressed. This company has not just millions but billions of 'excess money' - they have one of the highest profit margins to be found in any market, yet manage to get away with a stunningly low amount of innovation (compared to their competition) and a huge bureaucracy. Which makes sense considering their market position (Bell System, anyone?).
Now they move some of that money towards a few universities doing flashy, academic stuff - and spend even more $$$ advertising the fact they 'do research' (I'm betting the marketing part of the research budget is twice the size of the actual research). And you, Thom, go 'oh I love Microsoft'. There must be a cool English saying for this but I can't be bothered to look it up.
If half the marketing budget of MS in the last 10 years was spend on actual research, we'd laugh about 'minority report' interfaces by now.