> How can business leaders and shareholders spend money on long term R&D and still be accused of focusing on the short term and next quarter?

Because these two groups are not the same? My argument is, if a company overperforms to the point that some of the profits can be allocated to longer-term development without upsetting shareholders because the QbyQ profits are great, (like Apple did with the iPod), but if you can either only increase quarterly profits and not do long-term R&D or keep profits the same but do the R&D then no R&D it is.

In other words, Apple had to start with the iPod because that didn't require massive long-term R&D and then once that became such a success that Apple could not only satisfy shareholders on a short term basis, but also set money aside for long-term R&D was the iPhone possible.