The real question: will the executives at Microsoft be able to drive that strategy based on the pieces R&D is giving them? Historically, Microsoft R&D has come

The real question: will the executives at Microsoft be able to drive that strategy based on the pieces R&D is giving them? Historically, Microsoft R&D has come up with some great stuff, it just really hasn't made it into their user products. Bill Gates was hammering on tablets and touch interfaces for years, but Apple made it happen. They have had great microkernel OS or modern language OS R&D projects, yet the Windows kernel hasn't changed dramatically. There is a missing step between R&D and revolutionary product improvements.