Microsoft fights back over innovation accusations

A former Microsoft vice president has accused the firm of being a poor innovator

Microsoft has reacted quickly to an article in The New York Times by an ex-employee saying that the company has lost its touch for innovation.

Former Microsoft vice president Dick Brass wrote a piece lambasting the company for being a poor innovator.

The vast bulk of company profits are still derived from Windows and Office, he said, and Microsoft's attempts to branch out have largely failed.

"Microsoft has become a clumsy, uncompetitive innovator. Unlike other companies, Microsoft never developed a true system for innovation. Some of my former colleagues argue that it actually developed a system to thwart innovation," wrote Brass.

"Despite having one of the largest and best corporate laboratories in the world, and the luxury of not one but three chief technology officers, the company routinely manages to frustrate the efforts of its visionary thinkers."

Brass went on to claim that Microsoft is bedevilled with internal politics and in-fighting. During his time at the firm, Brass worked on the ClearType and Tablet teams and found both projects stymied by other teams as part of an internal turf war.

He also pointed out that Microsoft ignored the personal media player market until it was too late, and described the Xbox as an unexceptional games platform.

The piece brought a swift response from Microsoft. Frank Shaw, corporate vice president of corporate communications, rebutted some of Brass's arguments in a blog post.

"Obviously, we disagree. But his piece does represent a good opportunity to touch briefly on how we think about innovation," he wrote.

"At the highest level, we think about innovation in relation to its ability to have a positive impact in the world. For Microsoft, it is not sufficient to simply have a good idea, or a great idea, or even a cool idea. We measure our work by its broad impact."

Shaw said that ClearType is now in every copy of Windows, and defended the Xbox, pointing out that it was the first high-definition games console. However, the posting did not address the bulk of Brass's article, which was focused on corporate politics.