|
|
|
|
|
|
by gaius
5554 days ago
|
|
|
MSR probably paid for itself with ClearType alone. But that is a foolish comment; AT&T really was a monopoly, it had the government enforcing that on its behalf. It was effectively a branch of the civil service and its lab an academic department. Windows/Office cash-cow is really no different from IBM's mainframe cash-cow. They're in a dominant market position, sure, they're cash-generative, sure, but if they don't do research, their position becomes ever more uncertain. |
|
|
And weren't its tariffs generally set to allow it a certain profit margin? In that sort of setup, the decision to fund a big, expensive research lab is a no-brainer: you're guaranteed not to lose money in the short run, and the lab will probably make you money in the long run.