Windows 7: Microsoft Poured $8.2 Billion into Research and Development

Microsoft is constantly claiming that is it one of the top companies worldwide when it comes down to coughing up money in order to drive innovation. And the Redmond company is certainly putting its money where its mouth is. According to its Annual Report on Form 10-K, the software giant has spent a pretty penny on research and development in the past fiscal year. Between July 2007 and the end of June 2008, the budget allocated to R&D at Microsoft went 1 billion over the amount spent in the 2007 fiscal year, namely more than $8 billion.

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Later Ted

Wow!!! That's one big piggy bank. Makes one wonder what the future might hold?

Gary

Yeah; that's a lot of money!














Later Ted

Can I have some money Microsoft.

8 billion Dollars is peanuts for Microsoft.
70 million new computers were sold in the US in 2007.
WikiAnswers - How many personal computers were sold in 2007

The amount of personal computers in the world will reach one billion already by the end of 2008, and two billions - by 2015. Such information is contained in the forecast published by the Forrester Research marketing company.
Forrester Research’s forecast is based on the assumption, that from 2003 to 2015 the total number of personal computers in the world will annually increase by 12 percent.
The research specifies that the achievement of first billion of personal computer in the world took 27 years, and the threshold in 2 billion will be overcome for five years.
From two billions personal computers in 2015, according to Forrester Research, 775 million will be in Russia, China, India and Brazil.
As a whole, analytics predict that the growth of number of personal computers in the world basically will fall at less developed countries, but not to consumers of the advanced countries who fallow the novelties of IT market.
In 2008 the number of personal computers in the world will reach billion | Science Portal

90% of all computers in the world run a Microsoft OS.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/te...gy/27soft.html

In 2007 the following financial report stated:- "SEATTLE: Microsoft said Thursday that its profit rose 65 percent in its third quarter on sales of its new Windows and Office programs. The revenue forecast for the coming year exceeded most analysts' estimates.

Net income climbed to $4.93 billion, or 50 cents a share, from $2.98 billion, or 29 cents, a year earlier, beating the 46-cent average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales increased 32 percent to $14.4 billion"

You do the math.

90% of all computers in the world run a Microsoft OS...

Well that may be true in 2008 I don't think it will be true by 2010.

I am thinking 80%, but that's a guess due to recent success Apple and Linux are having.

You may be right. But at the 1997 Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be entering into partnership with Microsoft. Included in this was a five-year commitment from Microsoft to release Microsoft Office for Macintosh as well a US$150 million investment in Apple. It was also announced that Internet Explorer would be shipped as the default browser on the Macintosh. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates appeared at the expo on-screen, further explaining Microsoft's plans for the software they were developing for Mac, and stating that he was very excited to be helping Apple return to success. After this, Steve Jobs said this to the audience at the expo:
“ If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace a notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job. And if others are going to help us that's great, because we need all the help we can get, and if we screw up and we don't do a good job, it's not somebody else's fault, it's our fault. So I think that is a very important perspective. If we want Microsoft Office on the Mac, we better treat the company that puts it out with a little bit of gratitude; we like their software.

So, the era of setting this up as a competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I'm concerned. This is about getting Apple healthy, this is about Apple being able to make incredibly great contributions to the industry and to get healthy and prosper again.

History of Apple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So the more successfull Apple is the more software Microsoft sells.

As for Linux

"According to statistics from Net Applications, Linux desktop market share is less then one percent. Based on data from the metrics company, Linux exceeded the market share of Microsoft's much-hated failure, Windows ME, for the first time in Q4 2007. Statistics from W3 Counter paint a slightly rosier picture, attributing 1.77 percent market share to Linux on the desktop"

Evaluating prospects for Linux growth in 2008

I don't get it?

Am I missing something? Bill Gates wanted Apple to do good because it would in turn sell more copies of Windows?

If Microsoft shut down Apple a while back they would in turn have more money right?

I think you've got it backwards. Steve Jobs wanted Microsoft on board to resurrect the ailing Apple image. He couldn't compete with Microsoft.

A bit of history for those who don't know. Apple stole their operating systems, graphics interface and mouse from Zerox, who blindly gave them access to the candy store way back when Steve Jobs was developing the Lisa. Bill Gates in turn stole the Graphical Interface, mouse software and the bulk of what became Windows 1 from Steve Jobs, under the pretext of a partnership to developing software for the MacIntosh. Steve Jobs method of turning groups of employees against each other ie Apple 2 vs Macintosh tore the Company apart. Apple was sliding into oblivion as a leading edge developer of home computers and Micosoft was leaping ahead with Windows. Apple needed Microsoft, not the other way round. Today Apples core business is not PC's, but gadgets, such as the I-pod and I-phone. It has never recaptured the lead it held prior to the release of windows with it's software.

While Microsoft executives like to talk about Apple as an insignificant company with less than 5% of the worldwide market share of all PCs and servers sold, the Mac maker now has more cash than Microsoft and earns more than half of its profits and over three fourths its revenues.

The numbers are incredible:

Microsoft

Revenue: $15.1 billion | Net profits: $4.3 billion | Cash & cash equivalents: $20.7 billion

Apple (non-GAAP)


Revenue: $11.7 billion | Net profits: $2.4 billion | Cash: $25.5 billion

All of which raises an interesting question - How long until Apple is bigger than Microsoft? And before you scoff at that idea that dismiss me as an Apple zealot (which I am not), it very much is a possibility given that Microsoft’s quarterly revenues grew by by only 9%, while Apple’s (as measured non-GAAP) grew by a staggering 75%.

Could Apple become bigger than Microsoft?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2850