Microsoft is the Industry's Most Innovative Company? 421
mjasay writes "According to a recent analysis by IEEE, Microsoft's patent portfolio tops the industry in terms of overall quality of its patents. And while Microsoft came in second to IBM in The Patent Board's 2006 survey, its upcoming 2007 report has Microsoft besting IBM (and even its 2006 report had Microsoft #1 in terms of the "scientific strength" of its patent portfolio). All of which begs the question: Just where is all this innovation going? To Clippy? Consumers and business users don't buy patents. They buy products that make their lives easier or more productive, yet Microsoft doesn't seem to be able to turn its patent portfolio into much more than life support for its existing Office and Windows monopolies. In sum, if Microsoft is so innovative, why can't we get something better than the Zune?"
Prediction for this thread: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just call it a hunch...
Just goes to show... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:My only guess is that it is the handheld OS!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Innovation (Score:2, Insightful)
Innovation != Good (Score:5, Insightful)
IT RAISES THE QUESTION (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, but does that hunch beg the question, or raise the question? Inquiring minds want to know.
Call me skeptical (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly, I think the patent system hasn't been a good gauge of innovation in many, many years. Patents are issued for everything from BS "perpetual motion machines" to the grilled cheese sandwich [patentstorm.us] are granted routinely.
MS does have some valuable patents (Score:2, Insightful)
They said innovation, not WHINE (Score:1, Insightful)
In sum, if Microsoft is so innovative, why can't we get something better than the Zune?
Because you're busy complaining? Please, enlighten me as to how much more would get done if people who do ACTUAL WORK had OpenOffice to use on a daily basis. I am not a Microsoft apologist, it's just pretty damn low when you try to set up the Zune as the pinnacle of their accomplishments. Open your eyes.
Are we done yet? (Score:3, Insightful)
Clippy has been gone for so many years now that when ever I see someone bring him/it up, it automatically diminishes my respect for the author. The only thing more lame than dragging out Clippy would be dragging out Bob, or the hoax/cliche phrase "640k is enough for anyone" crap.
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Invention != Innovation.
The iPod is a good counter-example. There was nothing particularly inventive about it, but it was quite innovative.
Re:What are you guys talking about? (Score:2, Insightful)
Microsoft has never been in the business of making innovative anything. Customer happiness is not even on their radar screen.
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft's problem isn't R&D, it isn't that they don't have smart, cool or interesting people (although I imagine it's getting harder and harder to find new smart/cool/innovative ones)... their problem is the business management.
The management of Microsoft (based purely on my outsider observations) desperately wants to extend their monopoly as long as possible, by any means necessary. Their basic playbook, and it's getting kinda worn by now, is to make (or buy) neat tech and then force you to use their existing tech to use the neat tech. The problem with this approach is that the existing tech (Win & Office) is basically a frankenstein monster at this point and by crippling their new tech to force use of the old tech they ruin the good ideas. All this takes place well after the innovative thinking takes place.
MS shareholders need to do something about the state of that company, otherwise they're just going to continue to piss money away and eventually find themselves just like IBM in the early 90's.
l4h
C# and Dotnet (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:The Answer Is Simple (Score:3, Insightful)
Quality, not quantity (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft is *not* that innovative a company - it's bread and butter (80% of profits or so, I believe) come from corporations (not people), and corporations generally like "more of the same, please". There's nothing wrong with serving that demand, and [insert deity] knows they have clever people working there - the conclusion is that they don't *want* to be an innovative company - they're happy with the status quo, because it brings in gazillions of dollars for them. Sure, they'll have the occasional exciting new thing (how could they not, given their staff ?), but that's not the *company* focus.
In comparison, Steve is fond of saying he likes to run Apple as a small company, with the resources of a large company. That the cash-in-the-bank at Apple is because they *do* take risks, they *do* push the envelope that little bit farther, and that having a large wad of cash to fall back on is very useful, you know, just in case... Apple is ~1/5th the size of Microsoft (I think) in terms of staff, that's a lot of people, but they're spread pretty thin ("small company", "siege mentality", "more productive"), considering they produce computers, consumer devices, a major OS, several consumer apps, several pro-apps, as well as design their own hardware, operate a chain of retail shops (where most of the staff are), etc. etc.
Bottom line: Bill Gates said that Microsoft were one innovation away from being made irrelevant, and they work to protect their monopoly because of that. Apple's focus is more on the 'next big thing'. They take risks, and to do that you have to execute on new ideas. Apple is innovative, and its customers are people. Microsoft is protective, and its customers are corporations.
Simon.
it's only a department (Score:3, Insightful)
If I pay a few millions and buy or even build an innovative R&D lab and let the PhDs there crank out super ideas every day and I never use them, I am not an innovative company. One department does not represent the whole company.
Re:Did they include... (Score:2, Insightful)
Read up on patents. A state granted monopoly (temporary) is EXACTLY what a patent provides. Without them, there would be no incentive to publish the patent. It is a payment/compensation deal.
Make sure everyone knows about it, in exchange, no one can use it without your permission until the patent expires. Once the patent expires, it's fair game.
Re:Prediction for this thread: (Score:1, Insightful)
Who needs comments with a submission like that? Patents and innovation are unrelated and Microsoft are a prime example. Perhaps if MSFT execs stopped screaming "innovation" so desperately, they wouldn't be (rightfully) derided for it?
Re:Did they include... (Score:5, Insightful)
There, fixed that for you.
clippy? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:They said innovation, not WHINE (Score:4, Insightful)
So if the GP stopped complaining then MS would make something better than the Zune? I think you have that backwards, son. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, the open mouth gets fed. If I complain about a crappy product (not saying zune is crappy, never used one) the company may or may not take my complaints seriously and change the next iteration.
If no one bitches then they'll pat themselves on the back. I'm not a good judge of my own product, you are.
Please, enlighten me as to how much more would get done if people who do ACTUAL WORK had OpenOffice to use on a daily basis?
AFAICS having office suites that interoperate with different companies' suites would smooth business quite a bit. MS Office isn't so widespread because of its quality, it's widespread because only another Office user can interoperate seamlessly with it, and because nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft.
I am not a Microsoft apologist
I couldn't tell that from your post but I'll take your word for it.
Re:Are we done yet? (Score:3, Insightful)
I wish you'd tell Tom that. I hate walking into his office. He has all those annoying sound effects turned on, too.
Not that bad. (Score:5, Insightful)
The Flight Simulator line that they bought from SubLogic is actually very good. I love it and it is one of the reasons I keep Windows on my system.
I remember Word way back when No one used Windows and WordStar and WordPerfect ruled. It required a mouse and no one used it because it was SO different. Excel was another really innovative product. It was so much better than Lotus123 that it made your head hurt. I wounder how many Mac where bought just to use Excel before It was ported to Windows.
Visual Basic for all of it's proprietary nature did let a lot more people write code for Windows. Of course it let a lot of people that should have never been allowed to code to write code but that is another story.
Visual Studio is a very good IDE.
The calendaring features of Outlook/Exchange are very good.
The XBox 360 seems to be the right balance of HD graphics and cost.
XBox Live from what I hear is very good.
So yea give the devil his due.
The real truth is that everything is going to look like small beans compared to Windows and Office.
Too many patents gurantees poor innovation! (Score:3, Insightful)
All have some success stories from their respective research divisions, yet nothing remotely comparable to the number of patents they filed for.
Truthfully, a lot goes in to taking a "innovative idea" and taking it all the way through to become a marketable product in mass production. I think some of these big firms just like to pay a "think tank" to work on "anything you like", throwing all manner of things at the wall to see what sticks. This ends up being profitable for them because of all the lawsuits they can file over the trivial patents other people end up infringing on by accident - and means they're likely to eventually come up with something really innovative, at SOME point in time. (EG. Post-it notes!)
Smaller, more efficient businesses will do the R&D only on things focused squarely on a specific goal they've defined. They won't have huge numbers of patents, but will have ones relevant to their task at hand. These folks get more products to market per patent than the "big guys" do.
Re:IT RAISES THE QUESTION (Score:3, Insightful)
Begs the question? (Score:4, Insightful)
Does anyone else get the feeling that the editors actually do know what "begs the question" means, and are just screwing with us to get a higher post count?
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:2, Insightful)
IBM is damned lucky to be alive and thriving. They nearly went under in the early 90's. They were like GM on anti-steroids. They switched from hardware to services as their main focus at just the right time. It was a bold but risky move to change a big ship that fast, but they amazingly pulled it off. I thought they were toast near their low point.
I suspect the same thing might happen to MS. When they cannot milk their monopoly anymore due to a new paradigm or OSS, they'll probably pull a desperate thrash to keep doing the same thing until the breaking point comes where they realize they must switch direction or die. They have such deep pockets and resources that they'll probably survive, but never be the monopoly that they were, just like IBM.
Re:MSFT invented IPv6!? (Score:3, Insightful)
Not if I patent it they aren't!