It's been 11 years since I turned in my badge as an employee of Microsoft. But I'm getting really tired of the journalistic angle "Microsoft Doesn't Innovate" in the media and larger blogosphere. For instance, Wired's article "Let's see Microsoft Innovate its Way Out of This One", and "Microsoft's XBox 360, Sony Playstation are No Nintendo Wii".
Give it a rest. Take a deep breath, and let's look at whether this is really true.
Let me first state — I think Apple is a tremendously innovative company. If I were forced to choose which company is currently more innovative, I would choose Apple.
Most journalists, and even more bloggers and Digg-ers, seem to accept Apple as the canonical innovator, with Microsoft being the old-time firm that can never think of a new idea and simply copies what's in the marketplace.
But we all stand on the shoulders of giants.
The iPod was far from the first digital music player, it merely was a much, much better designed and marketed one, well-integrated with a music purchase store. Very nice innovation and improvement on what was there in the marketplace. The iPhone too, is a tremendous cellphone, but its signature "innovation" — the multitouch interface — wasn't invented at Apple; it was demonstrated by Jeff Han at TED a couple years before the iPhone was released. Again, like the graphical user interface, the portable digital music player, and many other things Apple's erroneously credited for "inventing", Apple synthesized and refined what was already there, and made it far smoother, far more elegant, and far simpler. Apple rightly deserves credit for their attention to detail, their push to improve and simplify, and their design elegance.
But this all-too pervasive idea that Microsoft doesn't innovate is a total canard, and it's lazy journalism.
To wit:
- Who released the very first satellite-based map of the world on the World Wide Web? It wasn't Google. Microsoft had its "Terraserver" live on the Web for more than three years before Google even existed as a company.
- Speaking of Google Maps, do you like the smoothness of "Web 2.0" sites that show page updates without full page refreshes? You see it all over the web — Facebook, Digg, Flickr, and far more. It's due to a technology called AJAX. And the most important element that makes this all work is a magical feature called XmlHttpRequest(), a way for browsers to communicate with servers asynchronously (that's the first A in AJAX). Invented by Microsoft, XmlHttpRequest first made its appearance in Internet Explorer 5.0. But you don't see many reporters recognizing that IE was the browser that actually ushered in the Web 2.0 AJAX revolution… All other browsers quickly followed, and this feature, coupled with some scripting, makes webpages feel smooth — enabling things like Google Maps, Stock Quotes that update in real-time, and virtually all the "Web 2.0" sites you can name.
- 9,167 patents with assignee "Microsoft". Doesn't necessarily prove innovation, but don't you think at least a few of those listed are innovations?
- Who created the first GUI-based relational database? It was Microsoft, and the product was Microsoft Access, released in 1994. Not dBase, not Borland, not Lotus.
- Who released the first web-based multiplayer matchmaking system for games? Microsoft, in 1995.
- Who released the first high-speed gaming network for video consoles? Microsoft, with XBox Live, which remains the most innovative online gaming experience out there. Microsoft was also first with online game add-ons right from your console.
- Do you take for granted the red squiggly lines showing you spelling errors as you type? Microsoft was the first to release this feature in Word, and now this innovation has become part of the ecosystem.
- The World Wide Telescope project is a tremendously innovative way of hurtling through space, virtually, and exploring our universe.
- Language Integrated Querying, or LINQ, is an incredibly innovative feature Microsoft just released in its developer tool suite. No other development environment offers this level of language-to-database query and schema-mapping integration.
Does Microsoft take ideas in the marketplace and try to build on them? You bet. So does Apple (iPod, iPhone, etc.) and every other tech company out there. Does Microsoft try some innovations every now and then that are total flops? You bet. So does Apple (Newton, meet Bob) and any other company. Should Microsoft be releasing more new innovations due to their size? I think so — I do think they could and should generate far more than they are today. But this idea that Microsoft never innovates is a total canard. It's lazy journalism.
Knowing that you are from MS and expecting what you might consider innovations, I am not surprised to see what you think are MS innovations.
Just to let you know (I know you wont believe it or agree with it), MS business model is the biggest computing innovation advancement obstacle or killer. I hope one day you will realize that. But for now, what do you know as your eyes are blinded by a monopoly and evil company that has controlled almost all your life style?
Good post, Steve. Definitely agree. Would go even farther on the AJAX / XmlHttpRequest() thing… came out in 1998, as I recall. First application that used it was Outlook on the web (aka, Outlook Web Access). Mozilla/Netscape didn’t have it *for years*… 2002 or 2003, as I recall.
And then there’s Silverlight, Surface, Live Framework and Messenger APIs/Live ID….
Apple *is* innovative in some very important ways, but it’s not really so much on the technology front, IMHO. GUI PC?
- Apple and Microsoft both copied the guys at PARC.
- OSX began life as a prettied up copy of BSD Unix by way of NeXT.
- As you mentioned, the iPod is wasn’t the first MP3 player, and iTunes not the first music service.
Apple’s most important innovation is their business innovation to put the client-device syncing experience together with the music buying experience. Second place? They copied themselves to do the same thing with the app store.
Back on the Microsoft-side, while they have many technology innovations, the most important innovation is also a business innovation: the “Platform Business model”. That is, they deliver a platform for apps, and nuture an ecosystem that provides apps on the platform, and people buy the apps and get the platform. The more people who have the platform, the more people wnat to build apps for the platform. And the more apps, the more people want to have the platform. A virtuous circle.
Look at hte iPhone marketing… it’s about the Apps. They are copying Microsoft here (their innovation was the device app store – not the business model).
BTW, Google is also copying Microsoft in this regard.
To be clear, I’m not anti-Microsoft OR anti-Google. I think they both have done some good things that are innovative. But the idea that they define innovation, while Microsoft is not innovative is simply not supported by facts — or even casual observation.
How about innovations in the last 15 years besides LINQ?
As for spelling correction:
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=358426
“Spelling correction in user interfaces” ACM 1983.
You are changing the argument — I am responding to those that say “Microsoft *never* innovates, only follows”.
But OK, here’s a short list just off the top of my head:
* Surface
* Project Natal
* XMLHttpRequest()
* High-density color barcode technology
* Infinite zooming image technology
* Broadband console gaming and Xbox Live
* Xbox Live Marketplace
* First music player with wifi and sharing
Have they all been major successes? Nope. Are they innovative? Yes.
Remember — the thing I’m saying is a total canard is the oft-repeated phrase that “Microsoft never innovates”. Anyone making that statement is either incredibly lazy or disingenuous.
Are they less innovative than they should be, given their size? You bet. Do they often build upon the innovations of others? Yep, just like Apple, Google and others. But to call them completely un-innovative is just plain incorrect.
“* Surface”
Microsoft did not invent multitouch surfaces. Turning it into a big-ass table is not innovation, only physical scaling.
“* Project Natal”
Ever hear of Eyetoy? Natal is not doing anything Eyetoy didn’t already do.
“* XMLHttpRequest()”
Which is a derivative of Programmer knows how many other scripted HTTP/XML interfaces. AJAX was not the first case of a scripting language doing something like this.
“* High-density color barcode technology”
Umm… This is older than Microsoft itself.
“* Infinite zooming image technology”
Sounds like a loaded buzzword phrase to me. I’m willing to bet you good money if I dig I’ll find another company claiming this technology, too.
“* Broadband console gaming and Xbox Live”
They didn’t invent broadband console gaming. Dreamcast did that two years before the XBox did, the broadband adapter just didn’t sell. XBox Live is not the first online gaming service either.
* Xbox Live Marketplace
Nor is Microsoft the first to implement a system for buying games online.
“* First music player with wifi and sharing”
Microsoft didn’t invent wifi or sharing. Putting it on a portable device isn’t innovative, either. Just because it’s primarily a music player means nothing: Wifi and file sharing’s been done before on portable devices, if anything the Zune was a backwards step for stripping out a load of features from the devices that did it long before the Zune.
“And then there’s Silverlight, Surface, Live Framework and Messenger APIs/Live ID….”
Silverlight is basically Microsoft Flash (The only difference between Silverlight and Flash besides almost no one using Silverlight is that Silverlight uses .Net, another non-innovation created at Microsoft purely because they lost a lawsuit with Sun over Java.), Surface is just a large multitouch system with nothing actually invented by Microsoft in it, The Live framework is nothing different from any other Web 2.0 frameworks out there, and you have got to be kidding me if you think Microsoft created IMs.
This is the most shameless example of Microsoft apologetics I’ve ever seen.
Please, name me a REAL innovation Microsoft’s had.
I think you’re making my point. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.
I’m not saying that Microsoft invented the broad idea of asynchronous communication, but they were indeed the FIRST to apply it and release it in a browser and in a major commercial product (Outlook for the Web, and IE 5.0). IE5, as sucky as it was, was actually the first browser to have asynchronous capability right out “of the box”. I know it may pain you, and maybe it challenges your worldview, but it’s the truth.
It’s “derivative” you say. Well, I assume you apply that measure to Apple and Google (and virtually any other “innovative” company). And then, what “innovative companies” are you left with?
It’s not black or white. I will state again that I agree that Microsoft is a less innovative company than they should be, given their size and resources. But they have invented things and delivered significant innovations in the marketplace. Only the truly lazy or willfully ignorant have bought into that storyline.
Just as Apple didn’t invent the Graphical User Interface (Xerox Parc), or Mouse (ditto), or Multitouch (Jeff Han et al) Interface. Most of Microsoft and Apple’s innovations are really dramatic improvements on what is already in the market or labs in some way.
Sometimes, there’s original research there — in Microsoft’s case, I’d wager that 9,000+ patents probably don’t all have completely original stuff in there (knowing patent office procedure), but I’d certainly wager that the number is greater than zero. If you truly believe the statement “Microsoft Never Invents”, then you’re saying all 9,000+ of these patents are wrongly awarded. (And I guess the burden’s on you then to prove it.)
For what it’s worth, I can attest pretty well to the fact that Microsoft DID invent multiplayer gaming hosted inside a web browser, since I actually led the team that released the first multiplayer gaming environment embedded in a browser. We were the first ones to do it.
Microsoft DID invent XMLHttpRequest(), which is the foundation of AJAX.
No, Microsoft didn’t invent the concept of a web browser or asynchronous communication, or even XML. But XMLHttpRequest is a very specific function that has become a standard, and Microsoft was the first to create it, release it, and see it copied numerous places. And the web world is better for it.
Microsoft DID release the very first graphical relational database. (I was there for that as well; Microsoft Access beat Borland, Fox, Lotus and others to market.)
In the same way Apple “invented” the iPhone, Microsoft “invented” broadband console gaming with a multiplayer matchmaking service. Which is to say — each took existing innovations in the marketplace and made them RADICALLY better. (I notice you don’t choose to comment on LINQ, Open Database Connectivity, Auto-correcting spelling-as-you-type, Autosum, Satellite mapping, or many of the other things I mention.) I didn’t even try to tackle any of the other 9,000+ patents that Microsoft currently has on file, just named a few off the top of my head. Keep going, please, because you didn’t cover the full list (and then you’ve only got about 9,000 more to go.)
My point here I think stands — the idea that Microsoft never invents anything is just plain lazy (or willful ignorance). It’s a canard.
typepad@sixapart.com wrote:
I will pick on XMLHttpRequest(). Nothing special here. It’s just the browser talking back to the server asynchronously. The technology is as old as the Internet (network communication). The reason it was not done before is that computers and browsers were too slow to handle that. But that is a matter of opinion.
My larger issue with Microsoft is that it has put on the breaks on the Internet for at least 10 years or much more with it’s IE browser with purposefully designed incompatibilities that prevented other browsers to display the web pages correctly. While the HTML/XML/CSS standard advanced, many new things where unusable because the developers had to keep their web pages compatible with IE, which prevented the usage of new technologies. Most if not all developers have cursed Microsoft a few times for doing that, while wasting countless hours trying to make their pages work across the board. And only now Microsoft is catching up with it’s IE 9 browser. Even that is still unknown.
There are other things that Microsoft did that gave it the title of an “evil” company. One of them was slow marginal advances while milking it’s customers for as much money as possible for as long as possible. It was in no interest to Microsft to innovate as fast and as much as possible because the slower they went the more money they got.
Than has changed with open source, Linux, Apple entering the competition. Microsoft cannot afford anymore to move slowly but it has gotten used to it. It remains to be seeing what happens in the future. But it will not be easy for Microsoft.
Vic, but nothing you say above disputes the fact that Microsoft actually *did* release XMLHttpRequest() into the world first. IE was indeed the first browser to include this innovation, and Microsoft should get some credit for ushering in the dynamic-website revolution.