Some pundits speak about Microsoft as if it’s already dead — a shambling, stuffy company sustained by locked-in legacy software and little else. Microsoft certainly has challenges ahead of it, but as I’ve outlined today, the company does not have its head stuck in the sand.
Redmond spends more on R&D than Google and Apple combined. Think about that the next time someone tells you Microsoft doesn’t have a future.
Check out the article and let everybody know what you think about the Redmond Giant's ideas.
Very interesting article, I wasn't aware of these R&D projects. I see a bright future for the augmented reality projects. I wish I could try out the HoloDeck myself.
ReplyDeleteActually I would never say that Microsoft is out of game and still the number of $ spend itself doesn't throw me on my knees but rather the fact that it is the amount bigger than of both Google and Apple combined. Nevertheless I think that the important things are how do they spend this money, but still cash is cash :)
ReplyDeleteAs for technologies in development mentioned in article still seems quite decent, especially the one with eye position based rendering. In fact I think that recently a lot of things start to take up this branch of science. Even our school recently received grant for research of eye movement in patients with Parkinson disease.
Lot's of interesting ideas, but lot's of poor execution too.
ReplyDeleteAlmost all could work in the consumer marketplace; few in the traditional business. The danger is getting fixated on the consumer marketplace and abandoning the business. Windows-8, as currently constituted, being an excellent example.
Similarly to Artur’s opinion - among many described futuristic technologies foveated rendering seems to be quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteI have been using computers over twenty years and I still have qwerty keyboard and mouse – I can’t imagine other methods for “user input” with better productivity. Of course I see role of Kinect and other showed inventions in entertainment but in business – not really.
I think that some technologies from article will be useful when we will have computers really everywhere – described reading e-mails without touching anything seems to be useful in a kitchen or garage because we often have dirty hands.
At the and I would like to say that in my opinion Microsoft doesn’t seem to be dead – I earn money through their operating systems, databases, office suite and so on.
I really like watching videos that are full of inspiring views, they can really help to understand how the world could be changed in order to create an even more friendly and comfortable environment to live in.
ReplyDeleteAs for the statement that MS is a "a shambling, stuffy company", I was assuming that Microsoft would spend a lot of cash on researching new technologies but I was shocked when I saw the numbers... Geez that's a lot of cash! Not many companies can (and decide to!) devote their resources on R&D. Some just wait for others to get a new and good idea which then others can "reuse" as their own.
As for the ideas, they were quite good and I see how they could be used in everyday life, but I also think that the materials presented to the public are not the best that MS has to offer. One may just wonder what revolutionary ideas are held behind closed doors, not visible to 'plain people'. But probably still, we will all see them in a couple of years.
Big IT corporations R&D is more like sine wave. Firstly, you see startup attitude, then company is starting to grow = more bureaucracy. Next step is to bring back true R&D, find next big deal etc. Look at Apple timeline - macintosh revolution, gap, imac and ipod, gap, intel macs, gap, iphone and ipad - and now they got serious crisis ;]. But, returning to the subject - their new products sounds really amazing (personally, I believe in kinect). As far as I can remember, for me (as a child) Microsoft was a truly innovative company (look now at Windows 8) - I remember pretty nice keyboard divided into two different pieces (for better ux) and a mouse with trackball on the other side (top) (but in my own opinion it was a fail).
ReplyDeleteYou can watch one of the new projector based technologies in action here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhvrOkaDxAY
It's true that Microsoft always had a big R&D budget and they've been ahead of time with many technologies (tablets for example). But I also think it's part of the problem that they're coming up with new technology too early, before it's ready for the consumer. What I mean by that is these prototypes are too limited, or not user friendly enough, or too expensive and even though they may well become huge hits in the future, currently they're not there yet in terms of usability (and when the time comes, someone else will do it better or just more in tune with what the users want anyway). Streaming video is a great example. Microsoft has been pioneering Internet video for years, before Internet speeds were ready for it, and then what happened was, Flash video took the Internet by storm even though it was a technologically inferior format.
I think that the Microsoft is the market leader in software development. Microsoft is a giant and they can create everything... ;)
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this article, I was shocked by two things:
1.Most of them were in the movies. :)
2.These ideas/equipment works.
It is certainly something worthy of attention. That technology develop so fast. When I reading this article I reminded that recently I saw on youtube very similar think.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fVhggGSjXVg
I wouldn’t expect M$ to sit empty headed concentrating only on releasing new versions of their flagship products just to introduce new licensing schemes and price lists.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of having projectors/sensors that would display some kind of an interface you could use to communicate with various systems is not the most dazzling one but it has the future I think.
In my opinion that kind technology is great idea but only in entertainment solution especially in games. Business is old fashion and all what they need is old qwrt keyboard and mouse:)
ReplyDeleteBut in games it is great idea i have hope that in near future they will make virtual games and that games will be more realistic:)