The Memo That Spawned Microsoft Research

An anonymous reader writes "In 1991, Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold wrote a 21-page memo to Bill Gates, laying out a plan to create what would become Microsoft Research. Here is the previously unpublished memo and some analysis, along with the original slides that Myhrvold used to pitch the idea to Microsoft's top brass. With the future of Microsoft now in question, it's interesting to see how forward-thinking the company was 20 years ago. It even foresaw how pitfalls in tech transfer, organizational structure, and product R&D could make it fall behind future competitors---who would turn out to be Google, Apple, and Amazon in search, mobile devices, and cloud computing."

Comments

Re:TL;DR Version

[i kan reed]

See, but Microsoft research actually has some great ideas, but the corporate leadership seems to always insist on chasing the previous latest thing, after the markets have established themselves.

Future!?

[dittbub]

Why is Microsoft's future in question?

Re:Future!?

[steelfood]

In a word: Metro.

That's the biggest sign of Microsoft losing focus. When their little side projects (Zune, Kin, XBox etc.) stayed side projects, it didn't matter whether it failed or not because they didn't affect the money train of Windows and Office. But when their copy-of-a-competitor-and-almost-guaranteed-to-fail side projects start worming their way into their traditional, core, revenue-generating products, then it becomes a big, big problem.

And not only did Metro infect their consumer products, but also their enterprise products. That's worse than Kodak inventing the CCD and killing themselves off. It's a Darwin award waiting to happen.

With that kind of leadership and management, I'd say there's definitely a big question mark over their future. The question is whether they'll continue this trend and ultimately end up destroying themselves by alienating all of their customers, or if they'll be able to reverse it in time before they stop bleeding. With Windows 8.1 and Surface 2, it's really, really not looking good.

Re:Future!?

[jbolden]

How is Metro a lack of innovation? They are the first major company to move towards ubiquitous computing. You may not like Metro but the ideas behind Metro are brave and complex (i.e. requiring innovation).

Future of Microsoft in question?

[SirGarlon]

Seriously, timothy thinks the future of Microsoft is "now in question?" That would be an accurate thing to say about Research In Motion, but Microsoft isn't in bankruptcy or anything. It's not even operating at a loss.

It's certainly true that Microsoft is past its halcyon days, and lacks either a coherent vision or any real popularity, but that doesn't mean it's on the brink of collapse.

The future of Microsoft now in question ... Huh?

[PoliTech]

"With the future of Microsoft now in question ..." Huh? Who is questioning the future of Microsoft? Ya got a link timothy?

Re:TL;DR Version

[steelfood]

Err, that's true of all old school tech R&D. Look at Xerox PARC, HP Labs, or especially the now-defunct Bell Labs, who gave us modern computing.

Research that needs to have ROI is not research.

Re:TL;DR Version

[citizenr]

Yes, they let them research the shit out of stuff, and then SHELVE IT AND NEVER USE IT.
M$ R&D department has only one role - to slurp up all the Stanford/mit/caltech they can get their hands on and deny other big corps (FB/google/amazon) that brainpower.