Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Accused of Squandering Billions On R&D
Julie188 writes "Even as Microsoft celebrates its 10,000th patent, angry shareholders are starting to speak out against what they say is the squandering of billions of dollars on pointless R&D projects. The 10,000th patent covers a technology that allows a device to associate data with objects placed on its surface, and is likely eventually to become part of the Surface table PC. But shareholders are fed up with the $8 billion annually spent. Said one, 'I believe Bill Gates is a charlatan because what he has said, implied, promised to shareholders and stakeholders and all of these visionary things that he mumbles and jumbles about and doesn't make reality of. MS is spending billions of dollars on R&D. Where is the return on investment?' In contrast, Apple had almost the same revenue gains as Microsoft while spending one-tenth as much."
Mmm... Steve Balmer / Flying chairs. So fresh, so original, so innovative. We need more like you.
The "retirement" was a lie. Bill Gates is still the largest M$ shareholder and the richest man in the US. If you think he no longer controls M$, you are sadly deceived.
M$ "innovation" is an even bigger lie. "R+D" on M$ balance sheets almost always includes marketing and advertising as part of "research" and a large portion of their product development goes into technical sabotage. This is why their R+D budget looks so bloated - they are dumping money hand over fist in an effort to insure positive press and media control. If they really were spending their monopoly rents on product development, they would have products 10x cooler than anything Apple could throw together.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
If they ever actually innovated, the $8 billion annual R&D budget would make sense. Since every single thing MS has ever sold has been derivative, rather than innovative, the money would be better spent on lattes and Wired Magazine subscriptions.