April 27th, 2006
Microsoft
So Ballmer is in Paris saying software prices could fall in the future, while in Seattle the company reports disappointing numbers and guides for more of the same.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said its third quarter
earnings and fourth quarter outlook were below Wall Street’s estimates in part because the company has decided to increase research and
development spending in areas where it isn’t a market leader but sees
potential.
These include things like security, high-performance computing and voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP, or Internet calling.
Paul Kedrosky called this the Google line. John Dvorak might say it is Microsoft continuing to support an albatross. Regardless of what anyone calls it, it just seems outrageous to spend $2 billion on R&D at this stage in the game, when most of the interesting work is being done on shoestring budgets in the living rooms of people who haven’t even necessarily been trained as computer programmers. And to think, earlier I called them one of the smart companies in the space.
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