An ex-Microsoft employee is claiming that internal dysfunction at Microsoft is hampering the software giant's ability to innovate.

Former Vice President Dick Brass wrote an op-ed piece in today’s paper disparaging the company for being a poor innovator. The vast bulk of company profits are still fetched via Windows and Office he said and the company’s attempts to branch out have largely failed.

"Unlike other companies, Microsoft never developed a true system for innovation. Some of my former colleagues argue that it actually developed a system to thwart innovation", Brass writes.

He adds that the firm is wounded with internal politics and in-fighting. While an employee Brass worked on the ClearType and Tablet teams and discovered both projects were being hindered by other teams as part of an internal turf war.

In addition, he also reflected that Microsoft ignored the personal media player market until too late and the Xbox is an unexceptional games platform.

Emphasizing that Xbox was the first high-definition games console, revealed that in the case of ClearType the technology was featured on every copy of Windows.

However, the posting did not relate to the bulk of Brass’ article which was targeted on corporate politics.