3 ms·

Microsoft no where to be found? The list is suspect.

by chewxy 14y ago

mynameisvlad 14y ago
I feel like people don't realize how innovative Microsoft is. Or choose to ignore whatever they hear. It's stupid, what it is. Because the stuff Microsoft Research is working on is crazy cool.
- nkoren 14y ago
  I think you might be mistaking innovation for invention. The stuff Microsoft Research is working on is indeed crazy cool. The stuff that Microsoft is commercialising, generally rather less so. Innovation, in the business world, doesn't just mean thinking up a bunch of nifty stuff: it means successfully bringing it to market. Xerox was inventive. Apple was innovative. There's a world of difference between the two. As far as Microsoft goes -- several years ago, I heard an embittered ex-Microsoft researcher opine that the purpose of Microsoft Research was to buy up the best and brightest people in the world, and then lock them safely away in a box where they could never deploy anything that competed with Windows, Office, or other entrenched cash cows. Although I have tremendous respect for what Microsoft Research is working on, I think there was some truth to this sentiment.
  - mynameisvlad 14y ago
    Sure, the stuff that they're commercializing is not as cool, but the stuff that is being worked on at Microsoft Research should definitely not be discounted because of this, nor should the company as a whole be not called innovative. They spend 3x more in R&D than Apple does, and it shows. When you look at what has come out of Microsoft Research in the past, you have things like C#, PixelSense, ClearType, and Photosynth to name a few. And that doesn't include other labs like Office Labs. If you ever get the chance to tour their lab space, it's crazy the sort of things they have prototypes for, as well as the things they're striving for with their productivity vision video. Plus, remember that the definition of innovation is "A new method, idea, product, etc: 'technological innovations'." That's exactly what Microsoft Research does. Things like the real-time translation that came out recently, the projected gaming system, and of course the things they're doing with NUI and the Kinect and using them as input methods for computers. Just because they're not viable right now does not discount the fact that they are making things that are some day going to change the way we work, and play. Edit: And I would definitely not consider Apple innovative, in any way. They make products for the masses, and, yes, they are awesome products, but they don't really innovate. I can consider the iPhone to be an innovative product since it changed the way we view smartphones. But after that, they've simply changed the previous year's version and bumped up the specs. Overall, that's what they do. They take a product they have, change it up a bit, and release it the next year. They're a great consumer company, don't get me wrong, but innovative? No.

Microsoft no where to be found? The list is suspect.

by chewxy 14y ago

Microsoft no where to be found? The list is suspect.

I feel like people don't realize how innovative Microsoft is. Or choose to ignore whatever they hear. It's stupid, what it is. Because the stuff Microsoft Research is working on is crazy cool.

nkoren 14y ago
I think you might be mistaking innovation for invention. The stuff Microsoft Research is working on is indeed crazy cool. The stuff that Microsoft is commercialising, generally rather less so. Innovation, in the business world, doesn't just mean thinking up a bunch of nifty stuff: it means successfully bringing it to market. Xerox was inventive. Apple was innovative. There's a world of difference between the two. As far as Microsoft goes -- several years ago, I heard an embittered ex-Microsoft researcher opine that the purpose of Microsoft Research was to buy up the best and brightest people in the world, and then lock them safely away in a box where they could never deploy anything that competed with Windows, Office, or other entrenched cash cows. Although I have tremendous respect for what Microsoft Research is working on, I think there was some truth to this sentiment.
- mynameisvlad 14y ago
  Sure, the stuff that they're commercializing is not as cool, but the stuff that is being worked on at Microsoft Research should definitely not be discounted because of this, nor should the company as a whole be not called innovative. They spend 3x more in R&D than Apple does, and it shows. When you look at what has come out of Microsoft Research in the past, you have things like C#, PixelSense, ClearType, and Photosynth to name a few. And that doesn't include other labs like Office Labs. If you ever get the chance to tour their lab space, it's crazy the sort of things they have prototypes for, as well as the things they're striving for with their productivity vision video. Plus, remember that the definition of innovation is "A new method, idea, product, etc: 'technological innovations'." That's exactly what Microsoft Research does. Things like the real-time translation that came out recently, the projected gaming system, and of course the things they're doing with NUI and the Kinect and using them as input methods for computers. Just because they're not viable right now does not discount the fact that they are making things that are some day going to change the way we work, and play. Edit: And I would definitely not consider Apple innovative, in any way. They make products for the masses, and, yes, they are awesome products, but they don't really innovate. I can consider the iPhone to be an innovative product since it changed the way we view smartphones. But after that, they've simply changed the previous year's version and bumped up the specs. Overall, that's what they do. They take a product they have, change it up a bit, and release it the next year. They're a great consumer company, don't get me wrong, but innovative? No.