Microsoft: $9.5 Billion for R&D in 2010

Microsoft has traditionally reserved an extremely consistent and constantly increasing budget for research and development year after year, and 2010 will make no exception to this rule. According to Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, who keynoted the CeBIT Global Conference in Hannover, Germany, on March 4, 2010, the Redmond company will spend no less than $9.5 million for R&D in 2010 alone. Still, the figure is only a part of Microsoft’s overall evolution strategy, which, according to Turner, revolves around a three-pillar vision involving three screens (mobile, PC and TV), the cloud, and on-premise solutions.

“This is our aspiration. This is how we’re reinventing Microsoft, and what we’re bringing to the marketplace. And this is a company that will invest $9.5 billion this year in R&D. Not only is that $3 billion more than the next closest technology company, it’s now more than any company in the world, which is an incredible opportunity to really, especially in light of the tough, difficult macroeconomic times that we’re coming out of, we chose to really lean in, and double down on our innovation and R&D story, because we feel like this is an incredible, unique inflection point in time, and we want to lead in the cloud,” Turner stated.

Even in a year when it was heavily impacted by the global economic downturn, Microsoft did not cut Research spending. In 2009, the company reserved no less than $9 billion for R&D, with Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer underlining that the investment would end up paying in the long run. And, by the looks of it, Microsoft is gearing up to break the $10-billion mark in Research spending in the next decade.

“And we’ve got some commitments to our customers. We’re going to continue to listen and seek to understand your business. We’re going to continue to connect in a deep way. We’re going to invest for the long term. As I said, $9-1/2 billion in R&D, that’s our commitment, to keep bringing out wonderful products like Windows 7, and Office 2010, and SharePoint 2010, and Windows Phone 7, and Bing,” Turner added.