The State of R&D At HP, IBM, and Microsoft 107
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."
One page (Score:1, Informative)
Narrow view (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft R&D (Score:2, Informative)
Microsoft R&D do make some stuff that's applicable to current products.
One clear example of that is multi-touch surfaces, that will be supported in Windows 7.
Re:Still a Moot Point (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry I didn't think we were confined to the same company. I was arguing against the idea that the research "dies".
A public example is the Glasgow Haskell Compiler [haskell.org]. True, it's not actually Microsoft branded as "MS Visual Haskell" or anything like that, but it is developed largely by Microsoftians (most prominently Simon Peyton Jones at Microsoft Cambridge). We all get a pretty decent and very usable compiler out of it; does it matter so much that it isn't branded as a Microsoft product?
... still seems like a bunch, to me ... (Score:2, Informative)
is LEAN. How to get rid of American jobs.
Hmmm ... then what about all this stuff: http://www.research.ibm.com/areas.shtml [ibm.com]
Or maybe IBM has secretly invented cell processor AI technology to produce scientific papers ... and "Dr. Who" Cybermen who present them at conferences ...
Note to self: buy more tinfoil, IBM Cybermen are just like totally *everywhere* ...
Re:Corporate research then and now (Score:3, Informative)
This works out. Their stock-market competitor Pfizer is in big troubles because they forgot to invest in R&D but instead extended their sales force. Now they have an empty drug pipeline and their sales force will have nothing to sell.