Ahh, IBM, aka, Big Blue, considered by some as a rite of passage, a Skull and Bones of the technology industry. Many famous and brilliant people work(ed) at IBM.

IBM has long invested heavily in R&D, for years receiving the most patents of any technology company, and several billion in annual patent royalties along with. But, where art thou on other business fronts Big Blue...? Alas, IBM just announced a new initiative where it will leverage its R&D strengths through R&D consulting services to other companies.

IBM will assess a company's current practices to identify which areas that firm's R&D group should focus on. This will help the client develop long-term R&D strategies linked to its overall business approach.

Although I've poked at IBM's adoption of open source at times, I consider this exciting news. I wish Big Blue good luck, but first, I'll make some bets.

1) IBM's investments in Linux have thus far been outside pure technological R&D, and focused more on sales, marketing and services development,
2) the R&D referenced for this IBM initiative will come from its longstanding strengths in R&D through which IBM has made itself a top patenting firm,
3) IBM will not donate its R&D consulting work, nor consult exclusively on open source projects, but may try to get clients to use its open source services for their internal R&D processes.

posted by Noel Le @ 8:46 PM | Free Culture Movement, Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation, Patents

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