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Bill's 10 biggest blunders

Posted on 12 May 2008 at 12:54

9. Smart displays

Why bother with one of those laptop things when you could have a dumb screen that's almost exactly the same size, and is effectively useless for anything but the most mundane web browsing? That was the so-called "Smart Display" concept introduced by Bill Gates at Comdex 2002, described by his on-stage assistant as "the evolution of the monitor". Sadly, natural selection took over in this particular evolution.

10. Wasted R&D

"The reason we have Microsoft Research is so Microsoft will still be here ten or 15 years from now," said Microsoft's Rick Rashid at the 15th anniversary of the 700-strong Research department in 2006. Since its launch, the company has spent upwards of $50 billion on research, and what's it got to show for it? At CES this year, Bill Gates didn't have a single new product to show. "Our friends up north spend over $5 billion a year on R&D and yet these days all they seem to do is try to copy Google and Apple," said Steve Jobs recently. He's got a point, Bill.

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Author: Jack Schofield