What is Digg?861 Comments
- cquinnd, on 04/28/2008, -21/+376Their innovations are targeting completely different markets.
Apple has Itunes, MS has XBox.
Apple has iLife, MS has BackOffice.
Apple focuses their development on Apple branded products. MS has focus in many different areas of the computing landscape, working with many different brands for partnerships on products and services. - rossisdead, on 04/28/2008, -26/+312This article would be better titled "Why doesn't Microsoft put out popular, flashy end-user products like the iPhone?"
- toxicityj, on 04/28/2008, -75/+270Apple doesn't innovate. They take existing technology, wrap it up in a pretty UI/case and overcharge for it, knowing their diehard fanboys will eat it up.
- eggyacid, on 04/28/2008, -55/+208it's not in their DNA
- LANjackal, on 04/28/2008, -73/+219FACT: According to an IEEE survery. MS is the top software industry innovator: http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9836499-16.html?p ...
Author of this article needs to do his homework. Buried. - sparql, on 04/28/2008, -3/+115This is really a poorly thought out article. MS has easily 10 times the amount of products and services Apple does. As such, it makes perfect sense they would spend more money on R&D. Plain and simple. Not to mention that a HUGE portion of these products are not what that get public recognition, since they are not consumer level products.
- rickcarson, on 04/28/2008, -10/+100Microsoft's modus operandi is to be third to market.
Someone proves that a thing is possible (Visicalc)
Someone else proves that you can make money off it (Lotus 1-2-3)
Microsoft steps in and proves you can make enormously much more money off it by marketing it correctly (Excel)
This pattern is repeated time and time again. Also, just because they fail to get it right the first time, doesn't mean they won't keep trying. - MioTheGreat, on 04/28/2008, -12/+97Because Microsoft puts out the tools to let other people put out flashy end-user products like the iPhone.
- headzoo, on 04/28/2008, -3/+73I think that sums it up pretty well. I keep seeing commercials for cars (or is it just the stereo?) that can respond to the driver's voice, and of course it's powered by Microsoft. That's the kind of stuff MS does. They develop technologies that aren't necessarily tangible, but the tech is everywhere, and we're using it everyday without even knowing about it.
That's the Microsoft way. They develop technologies that they can license to manufacturers. Apple on the other hand develops technology that they can sell themselves. - skywake, on 04/28/2008, -2/+69Microsoft (as much as I hate them) also fund a lot of third party research projects. A lot of the stuff that comes out of it are the sort of things you don't buy off the shelf. There are other areas of computing outside of the consumer and small business type stuff.
- 0260, on 04/28/2008, -9/+68microsoft is spending that money on bringing health care to third world countries through affordable technology. apple is using it to make yet another ipod more appealing to teenage girls.
- moisie, on 04/28/2008, -21/+77With a company like Intel it isn't about innovation, they need to spend in order to just maintain natural progression. You really do wonder what MS spend the money on though.
- Aleman360, on 04/28/2008, -7/+63They still do some innovative things... I think the Office 2007 Ribbon is the most innovative UI I've ever seen in office apps. Xbox Live is innovative as it still is the gold standard for console multiplayer after 5 years.
Also I think that Apple's innovations are generally more apparent because they do it mostly in hardware. - inactive, on 04/28/2008, -12/+67What innovations come from Apple exactly?
Microsoft is primarily a software company. Apple makes end-user products. - BuddingMonkey, on 04/28/2008, -10/+60FACT: Bears eat beets. Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica.
- TheUngod, on 04/28/2008, -5/+55Sadly people assume that Microsoft means "Windows." They forget about things like SQL and such other things that Apple doesn't have.
- avanderveen, on 04/28/2008, -13/+59Microsoft does out-innovate Apple. The only thing innovative Apple has done lately has been the iPhone. Most people have knowledge that Microsoft has Surface, Sync, and XNA, but they also have a variety of other not-so-public projects going on. For example, they had a robotics programming interface in the works that would compete with Lego Mindstorms in simplicity. It's not that MS doesn't innovate, it's that people like the author of the article don't know what they're talking about.
Somehow people find it much easier to bash Microsoft ignorantly than to actually know what they're talking about before they discuss something. - rudy23, on 04/28/2008, -11/+57replacing broken chairs.
- misterteenwolf, on 04/28/2008, -16/+61all i know is that i love my xbox 360 for numerous reasons
- Smurph0404, on 04/28/2008, -10/+51I talked to someone who worked at Microsoft Research earlier this year. He told me that the atmosphere is almost academic- People are more concerned with scholarly work than producing products. He said he moved back to a development team because he didn't want to write academic papers.
- buenit, on 04/28/2008, -2/+41So by your logic, that would make playstation a copy of sega cd.
- fotbr, on 04/28/2008, -0/+39Traditionally, Microsoft's target hasn't been the general public. Its target has been selling software to businesses. You don't have to be revolutionary or innovative to succeed with that market, you just have to have a good product, and for the last couple of decades, Microsoft had the business computing market locked up.
- dajernts, on 04/28/2008, -2/+39MS aims to build infrastructure while Apple aims to build single encapsulated products. Metaphorically speaking, MS builds the room and allows you to put whatever furniture you want in it while Apple builds the room and furnishes it. As such, MS's innovations are less noticeable as the room must be easily adaptable by furniture makers while Apple's innovation are much more noticeable, as they have free reign to build the room as they wish. Either situation has it's benefits. Most people don't buy fully furnished houses though.
/long winded metaphor - trer, on 04/28/2008, -9/+45Because there is more to innovation than putting out shiny thin laptops and mixing them with indie-pop songs
- kidcodea, on 04/28/2008, -3/+38oh yeah, the freedom at APPLE is astounding!
- simg, on 04/28/2008, -2/+37and .NET
and Visual Studio
and Mesh
and XNA
and Silverlight
and SQL Server
I could go on.
I'm not an MS fanboy, but they are developing a *lot* of stuff - philodygmn, on 04/28/2008, -45/+80I'd hate to see them try. We'd get more "innovative" "standards" like OOXML, "unique" takes on W3C compliance, and a software platform so perniciously incompetent it'll absorb all effort which would have gone into real innovation redirected into contortions required to counteracting the damage.
- etcimon, on 04/28/2008, -16/+49Buried as inaccurate. Microsoft Research is a real research group looking to patent new technologies. Apple only builds on their existing products with existing technologies.
http://research.microsoft.com/Research/Projects/
What has apple done? See below.
http://www.apple.com/acg/archive.html - coustoe, on 04/28/2008, -9/+42funny how MS does have a lot of innovative products but somehow Apple can work the hype machine more effectively.
Probably comes down to the mac fanboys/zealots. - sonstone, on 04/28/2008, -5/+38Let's also not forget that innovation doesn't just mean nice shiny laptop and music player for the masses. Businesses pay huge amounts of money for software that many don't know anything about. This is a game that apple doesn't even play in, so making blanket statements and comparisons like this is absurd.
- sonstone, on 04/28/2008, -6/+38Or possibly he couldn't cut it. It's 10 times more difficult to write those papers than to chug out code. Coding is cake...
- DigiRaven, on 04/28/2008, -5/+37Why do people insist that Microsoft only makes vista, xbox, and zune? Microsoft's development goes far and beyond from what the average consumer will ever see in their lifetime. A lot of backbone goes into corporations. If Apply develops as much software as Microsoft you will see a big budget from their side as well.
- jcrewyayo, on 04/28/2008, -8/+39http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/ - BXRWXR, on 04/28/2008, -12/+39Because they don't have to.
- haywiremonkey, on 04/28/2008, -11/+38Aren't we forgetting about Surface here? I mean....that's like....a really big, smarter iPhone.
- sonstone, on 04/28/2008, -3/+30SQL is just the tip of the iceberg...
- CitizenC, on 04/28/2008, -29/+56A Mac (expensive) is OSX (expensive), which is Unix (Linux = Free and exactly the same, eyecandy and all), running on Intel Hardware (cheap).
An iPod (expensive) is a hard drive (cheap) with a program that plays mp3s (free).
The iPhone (expensive) is a cell phone (cheap) that has a touch screen and accelerometer (ok, the accelerometer is neat).
Sounds like Apple's innovations involve making their products plain and training their customers to pay HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS MORE.
I'm not sure how "ripping off your customers by overcharging for the brand name" qualifies as "innovation".
Can somebody clarify please? - illt, on 04/28/2008, -4/+28One of their many attempts to enter many different markets.
Apple's market diversity is much smaller than microsofts.
Let's also not forget some innovative stuff coming from MS like photosynth - MioTheGreat, on 04/28/2008, -17/+39What exactly has Leopard innovated?
Half the stuff in Vista was copied by competitors while it was still in beta. - romistrub, on 04/28/2008, -4/+26Was waiting for someone else to say it
- SpeedSteamBoat, on 04/28/2008, -1/+23I don't understand your comment. Are you implying Intel doesn't innovate? If so I believe you may be mistaken. They didn't get this far out ahead of AMD by sticking with NetBurst. And really, when you get down to how the most modern Core Duo chips operate compared even to the original Core line there is a lot of very innovative stuff going on.
- plasticxme, on 04/28/2008, -7/+28Really? I do not recall ever seeing a PSX, PSOne, or original PS2 come with both a HDD and built-in Ethernet port. Come to think of it, Sony was even too lazy to create a polished online experience like Live.
Using your logic, one could say that the Sony Playstation was a complete rip of Nintendo's SNES. I mean, PSX was originally being developed to be an add-on for the SNES so that it could run games off of disc, in 3D. - dan222555, on 04/28/2008, -12/+33They're too busy making meaningful innovations to useful products as opposed to showy, glitzy "innovations" to poorly made, overpriced products.
They have people doing real work and businesses to worry about....not just a bunch of shallow hippies. - coustoe, on 04/28/2008, -3/+23I imagine most of MS R&D money goes to creating Business/developer type applications/standards/APIs. This cost more money then creating consumer gadgets and applications.
- tonyscha, on 04/28/2008, -16/+36Dont forget the fact that microsoft has like a 95% market share while Apple is like 2 to 3%? Microsoft also has to support alot more software.
- SillyRabbits, on 04/28/2008, -2/+21Or to put it another way, Apple works on innovations that make the Starbucks' crowd go ohh and ahhh.....Microsoft spends their efforts on innovations that make the IT guys go ohh and ahhh. It takes a lot of time and money to fix the non-sexy things "under the hood" that the average consumer will never notice. It's a thankless job.
- TheG2, on 04/28/2008, -5/+24Are you kidding? I'm on a college campus and Microsoft is one of the top 3 most highly sought after employers here. Google and Apple being the other two, but I personally know 6 people going to work at Microsoft at the end of this year.
- logicalnoise, on 04/28/2008, -5/+24you've got some jobs nut hair on your chin....just there.
- scbysnx, on 04/28/2008, -7/+25.. they do sell so.. how about a real answer?
- FutureGuy, on 04/28/2008, -1/+19Right PlayStation was original, no one ever came up with a game console before /s
-
Show 51 - 100 of 856 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is