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."

Comments

Microsoft R&D is about keeping people away

[SuperKendall]

Microsoft R&D is there for one purpose - to keep smart people working for Microsoft, and not some other company.

Microsoft really does not care if they are developing a toaster that can come up with a catchy background track for eating your bagel, they don't want the smart people harnessed by other companies.

If you haven't figured it out, that's really why Google is such a threat - because they have figured out how to attract the smart people, while also getting some productive ideas from them to market.