A former Microsoft vice president called out Microsoft for a lack of innovation in a New York Times editorial Thursday.

Dick Brass, who was a Microsoft executive from 1997 to 2004, dissected how Microsoft's culture stunts innovation and compares the company to General Motors. Ouch. (As in Windows and Office are like General Motors' SUVs and trucks.)

Here is a link to the editorial.

With the recent announcement about Apple's iPad, Brass asks the question "... why Microsoft, America's most famous and prosperous technology company, no longer brings us the future ..." He goes on to call Microsoft a "clumsy, uncompetitive innovator."

In the editorial, Brass — who said he worked on tablet PCs and e-books at Microsoft — said the internal culture of competition allows more established groups to kill smaller groups working on emerging technology.

Update 12:30 p.m.:

Microsoft responded to Dick Brass' editorial in a blog post by Frank Shaw, corporate vice president of corporate communications.

"Obviously, we disagree," Shaw wrote. Then, a smiley face " :) ."

Shaw goes on to explain that, "For Microsoft, it is not sufficient to simply have a good idea, or a great idea, or even a cool idea. We measure our work by its broad impact."

He responds to some points that Brass made about a display technology called ClearType and video-game console Xbox.

Here is the Microsoft blog post.