On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 19:00, Lars D. Noodén wrote: > Another route would be to question the basis of MS' claims for investing > $50 bn in R&D. After all, what are the visible results, we'd expect some > results, right? > > I am fairly skeptical that far from the full amount is actually used for > research or development. One reason for this skepticism is that for a > while MS' form 10k, 10q and corrections seemed to suggest that marketing > was the largest expense. When people started laughing at them publicly > for it, there came a series of high profile announcements proclaiming the > emphasis on R&D. > > http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?type=10&dateb=&owner=include&count= >40&action=getcompany&CIK=0000789019 > > I don't know how one would dig deeper, but I suspect a lot of Microsoft's > budget under the heading 'research and development' is in practice still > used on marketing and/or legal fees.
They spend it on research and development for sure... Researching the market, and developing their marketing ploys, researching their competitors patent portfolio, and developing their own.... The term "Research and Development" can mean anything you want it to (a bit like statistics, really). "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics..." (can't remember who actually said that...). > -Lars > Lars Nooden ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > Software patents endanger the legal certainty of software. > Keep them out of the EU by writing your MEP, keep the market open. > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Alex Fisher Co-Lead, CD-ROM Project OpenOffice.org Marketing Community Contact Australia/New Zealand http://distribution.openoffice.org/cdrom/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
