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Uh no. Xerox made billions from the laser printer. And yes they missed capturing all the profit but it was crazy profitable. https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2015/03/21/how-parc-...

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Hmm, thanks for the interesting article. Probably knew that at one time but forgot lol.

Still, it shows my point, that research that reaches too far from the company’s core biz is difficult to recognize as a success. The laser printer, was a better printer and it was an improvement to Xerox existing scan+print business.

Bell Labs also had a lot of commercial success.

when a business has an r&d department it's inherently suicidal to consider any current activity as ‘core biz’ especially in a competition. your research department’s objective is to move the puck into new locations, hopefully evading your competitors, and your job as mother institution is to skate there. settling into any so-called core business is contra good business thinking. starting an r&d department isn’t.

Makes you wonder how the mythos that Xerox dropped the ball with PARC is so pervasive in our culture, or that it was net unprofitable. Probably the early scrappy 'garage engineering' mythology surrounding Apple plays into it?

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