Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The State of R&D At HP, IBM, and Microsoft

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the no-monopoly-on-good-ideas dept.

jcatcw writes "Computerworld surveys the R&D efforts at HP, IBM and Microsoft ($17 billion annually) and raises the question: Are these companies supporting more long-term basic research, or just the usual short-term, product-oriented work? HP is consolidating its focus on a few 'big bet' projects in five major research areas — information explosion, dynamic cloud services, content transformation, intelligent infrastructure, and sustainability. IBM has four 'high-risk' basic research areas — nanotechnology, cloud computing, integrated systems and chip architecture, and managing business integrity through advanced math and computer science. Many of the 272 research projects named at Microsoft Research's Web site are structured with major product lines like Windows, Office, or Xbox in mind, but many also seem to have no likely application to anything the company sells today."

4 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Designed in Taiwan by arth1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    These days, very little research, development and product design is done in the US. It's marketed as done in the US, but in reality, many if not most companies will order designs from no-name design firms across the dam, who specialize in delivering solutions and keeping strict NDAs. The US participation tends to be limited to those who communicate with the foreign designers.

  2. What has MS achieved in the R&D department? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    I mean, other than toys. IBM's and HP's R&D's pedigrees are superb, what with technological breakthroughs and Nobel prizes involved. What can MS's R&D stack up against that? Nothing much. In fact, MS seems to have a penchant for hiring people who have done superb research elsewhere, only to stop producing anything interesting after joining MS.

  3. The only thing IBM is researching by linuxpng · · Score: 0, Troll

    is LEAN. How to get rid of American jobs.

  4. Microsoft shouldnt be in the list.... by alexborges · · Score: 0, Troll

    IBM does LOADS of research in materials, chip, silicon, quantum, math...and etcetera. They actually live off some real patents and some trolish stupid patents.

    HP does less than IBM, but its sort-of in the same league: they do, for a big part, live of real patents

    Microsoft has only patented really stupid ideas (not that the other two havent, but MS practically ONLY has patents for trolling or to "prevent" trolling).

    In the end, the truth for the US, is that the government pays for R&D and the corporations profit from it. And its not a bad system at that: the gov. pays A LOT for GOOD R&D (hey, they gave the internet to the world, didnt they?), and it cannot massify it, move it to cheaper markets, comoditize it, foster competition arround the result of R&D.

    Thats what the free market is for and it SORT OF works.

    But... thats another discussion altogether. Ive allways thought that the IT industry is basically a trust like the old Oil Trust: they sit down and share the cake, set prices, lobby for stupid software patent laws, and the public suffers from this.

    In come FOSS.... and thats going to change this ways at least for software.

    --
    NO SIG