R<->D, not R&D

In the computer industry, research and development are often treated as having the same goal: development of artifacts. In this common conception, time-to-product is the primary categorization criterion. Development refers to projects that are two years or less from market, while advanced development refers to projects that are two-to-five years away from the marketable product, and research refers to projects that are five years or more from market. This article presents several cases of technology transfer which show that research can be valuable without producing product prototypes, and need not take years to pay off.