Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft R&D Burgled: Only Apple Products Stolen

Posted by timothy on from the 'cause-they-had-no-time-'cause-they-were-on-a-clock dept.

Sir Realist writes "Apparently Microsoft's R&D offices in Mountain View were broken into over the holidays: the only things stolen were Apple iPads and the theft has apparently been confirmed from a number of sources."

10 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. makes sense by netwarerip · · Score: 5, Funny

    They were likely the only things of value in the building.

    1. Re:makes sense by Sez+Zero · · Score: 5, Funny

      "And nothing of value was lost", said everyone at the Microsoft R&D center.

    2. Re:makes sense by kelemvor4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "And nothing of value was lost", said everyone at the Microsoft R&D center.

      Yep. Regardless of how you feel about one company or another, an unreleased product from company A is almost certainly more valuable than a commonly available product from company B. My suspicion would be that the thieves were probably employees or contractors at the MS site (cleaning or other cheap labor crew or some such) and knew they could get a quick buck for the Apple products. They probably didn't even know what some of the other stuff was. Asserting the apple products were selected because of their superiority is about as silly as the tongue in cheek assertion that Steve Jobs is really responsible for NY Crime rates due to the theft of Apple products.

      Also, if you follow the news here at all you'll see that missing development products from large companies attract great attention from law enforcement. Missing ipads get filed away as a report somewhere and if they happen to catch the guy, then everyone is happy. If not, MS is out, what maybe $2k that they can now write off? What missing ipads don't get are federally funded investigations.

  2. as much as I'd like to make a joke... by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Informative

    It was an R&D center for making Apple software, so there probably were no Surface tables around...

    But it would be extremely funny if there were left out in the open for all to see.

    1. Re:as much as I'd like to make a joke... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he discovered that Apple used Windows servers almost exclusively because Apple didn't have great server offerings.

      At some point you either have to make a truly competitive product, or realize you shouldn't be in that market.

      No, Apple used Solaris and IBM AIX. Back then, Microsoft didn't have great server offerings either. (This being Slashdot, lots of people will say it still doesn't.)

  3. Onion called, wants their story back by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    This too closely fits the decades-old stereotype that MS just steals Apple's ideas as their "R&D" M.O.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  4. you know your marketting has failed by ILongForDarkness · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When someone breaks into your R & D shop and the only thing they see of value is someone else's gear.

  5. "Turn right at the next dead end" by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    The thieves wanted to rob Apple, but they made the mistake of using Apple Maps to find it.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  6. Re:Brandnames by arob28 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Detergent as currency? This takes money laundering to a whole new level.

  7. Re:Brandnames by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    One of the funniest jokes I ever heard was when the first windows phone came out: They said they hated it so much, they went to a store and left the phone on the passenger seat of their car with the window rolled down. When they came back... there was another windows phone next to it.