Getting Pretty Tired of the "Microsoft Doesn't Innovate" Zeitgeist

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 multitouch interface was demonstrated by Jeff Han at TED a couple years before the iPhone was released.  Apple synthesized and refined what was already there, and made it far smoother, far more elegant, and far simpler.

But this 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. 

Comments

[goit]

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?

[John]

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.

[BlogReader]

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.

[Steve Murch]

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.