I didn't say that Microsoft and Google were the only two companies with
high quality research labs. Within a few miles of my home there are large,
high quality labs at SAP (Palo Alto), Microsoft (Bay Area), PARC (formerly
known as Xerox PARC), SRI, IBM (Almaden), and HP. (plus of course Google).
And NASA (Ames). All of these companies have world-class researchers. All
have a huge patent portfolio. All get awards for their work.
And of course in other industries there are still large, effective labs
(e.g., General Electric and the several drug companies).
--
I didn't mention either IBM or HP because I was concentrating on high tech
companies that are still interested in and can afford general research,
much in the style of the old Bell Labs.
HP is very product-focussed. You can argue that is a good thing, but
nonetheless, that is why I left it out. Same with SAP. PARC is so small it
doesn't much matter much any more and most of my friends who were there
have either retired or moved to IBM, Almaden, or to Google.
IBM Research is no longer open-ended. They have moved to a
few strategic areas, such as solid state physics (especially for memory and
computation) and services, but with a focus on consulting and operating
efficiency. lots of mathematicians in their service business. In New York
and Cambridge (USA), they have excellent social groups, but focussing on
IBM product needs. My friends at IBM Almaden are either in services or
have left. Some have gone to Google.
I think IBM is a borderline case today as far as calling them a general
purpose research lab. Excellent people, but moving to focus on their new
core businesses (which is what a company research lab should do).
You may count them if you like. I shake my head in sorrow and say, what a
loss.
Don
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