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This is wrong. The article even mentions this. Look at Bell Labs

by relyks 8y ago

1996 8y ago
I am not surprised that an PR article would try to spin the positive side. There are rare exceptions in anything - but the existance of lottery winners does not mean the expected payout of a lottery ticket is positive. Bell Labs used its monopoly profits to fund research - which was good for research, but no so much for Bell. If we consider AT&T as Bells successor, it only allowed Bell to stay relevant. Still, AT&T now is nowhere close to Bell it is heyday. Same for Xerow now. Research doesn't pay as much as companies seems to think. While google position in online advertising is as close to a monopoly as legally possible, it will not change the structure of the incentives. The odds are against them. But maybe they do not aim for the kind of success they claim they will have, and only want to stay relevant, like Microsoft is now. That is more possible, even if it will be hard to pull. Personally, I think most R&D money that companies like Microsoft (or Google) have sunk into internal R&D could have had much better uses. But it's not my money! And eventually white elephants get butchered for the meat, so no big loss there.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- VikingCoder 8y ago
  > Research doesn't pay as much as companies seems to think. Some companies are constantly researching ways to improve their products. Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple come to mind. Some companies are constantly researching for new ways to find their resources. Every oil company comes to mind. I think your claim is way, way off.
  - 1996 8y ago
    By "research", I meant it in the context of this discussion : "internal incubator" style R&D to try to spawn a brand new line of products totally outside of the current business line. Ex: tablets for Microsoft in 1994. Google driving cars.
    - VikingCoder 8y ago
      Android, Chrome, Maps, YouTube, GMail... The "current business line" of Google was Search. Full stop. Some people thought it was absurd when Google started doing email, or smartphone OSs, or browsers... I could go on and on. Microsoft doing gaming consoles. Amazon doing web services rather than online storefront...

This is wrong. The article even mentions this. Look at Bell Labs

by relyks 8y ago

This is wrong. The article even mentions this. Look at Bell Labs

1996 8y ago

I am not surprised that an PR article would try to spin the positive side. There are rare exceptions in anything - but the existance of lottery winners does not mean the expected payout of a lottery ticket is positive. Bell Labs used its monopoly profits to fund research - which was good for research, but no so much for Bell. If we consider AT&T as Bells successor, it only allowed Bell to stay relevant. Still, AT&T now is nowhere close to Bell it is heyday. Same for Xerow now. Research doesn't pay as much as companies seems to think. While google position in online advertising is as close to a monopoly as legally possible, it will not change the structure of the incentives. The odds are against them. But maybe they do not aim for the kind of success they claim they will have, and only want to stay relevant, like Microsoft is now. That is more possible, even if it will be hard to pull. Personally, I think most R&D money that companies like Microsoft (or Google) have sunk into internal R&D could have had much better uses. But it's not my money! And eventually white elephants get butchered for the meat, so no big loss there.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
VikingCoder 8y ago
> Research doesn't pay as much as companies seems to think. Some companies are constantly researching ways to improve their products. Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple come to mind. Some companies are constantly researching for new ways to find their resources. Every oil company comes to mind. I think your claim is way, way off.
- 1996 8y ago
  By "research", I meant it in the context of this discussion : "internal incubator" style R&D to try to spawn a brand new line of products totally outside of the current business line. Ex: tablets for Microsoft in 1994. Google driving cars.
  - VikingCoder 8y ago
    Android, Chrome, Maps, YouTube, GMail... The "current business line" of Google was Search. Full stop. Some people thought it was absurd when Google started doing email, or smartphone OSs, or browsers... I could go on and on. Microsoft doing gaming consoles. Amazon doing web services rather than online storefront...