The companies that can afford to do basic research (and can't afford not to) are ones that dominate their markets. ... It's cheap insurance, since failing to do basic research guarantees that the next major advance will be oened by someone else.
Robert X. CringelyFor every hour of brains, you will be charged three hours. The other two hours go to management and project management, which is to say they are wasted.
Robert X. CringelyApple and Google will compete like crazy for our data because once they have it we'll be their customers forever.
Robert X. CringelyHewlett Packard at one point had only three private offices. One belonged to Hewlett, one to Packard, and the third to a guy named Paul Ely who annoyed so many coworkers with his bellowing on the phone that the company finally extended his cubicle walls to the ceiling.
Robert X. CringelyApple isn't the next Microsoft, you see. Apple is not the next anything because the role it aspires to transcends anything imaginable by Microsoft, ever. Google is the next Microsoft, so Google is seen by Ballmer as the immediate threat - the one he has a hope in hell of actually doing something about.
Robert X. Cringely