January 18, 2005

Microsoft #1 in R&D?

An email I get now and then from a microsoft employee has the following signature :

Quick Fact: In FY04 Microsoft invested $7.9B ~ 25% of revenue in R&D. This makes Microsoft No. 1 in R&D worldwide, in all industries. Benchmarks for consideration: IBM $5.1B ~ 5% of revenue, Sun $1.8B ~ 12% or revenue, Oracle $1.2B ~ 12% of revenue

Here is a quick reason this is bogus. For microsoft calls making its products R&D. This is like Toyota claiming that the majority of its manufacturing process is R&D. Or if all media companies claimed that their production of content (tv & films) is R&D. Pumping out crappy code is not Research and shouldn't classified as such.

Posted by Anthony at January 18, 2005 09:31 AM | TrackBack