I think Microsoft tosses too much research money around in the hope of finding something rather than focusing more on what matters.

I don't know why they can't innovate like other companies with all those projects and all that money they spend in R&D. Maybe it's because of all that internal competition outlined in the Dick Brass' "creative destruction" piece. This could be one explanation, but I think it's not the only one.

It was not long ago that MS investors complained that Apple invests one tenth of what Microsoft invests in research, obtaining far better results.